RWBY Shadow's Rage
by rekr ori'kad
Summary: What if Taiyang went with Summer? what if neither of them came back? What if Ruby made a deal with a devil and Yang was trained by Qrow? Yeah that's pretty much this fic.
1. Prologue

**A/N so this is another story I've been throwing around my head. Don't know how it will do but here it is.**

It hurt but It didn't know why. The wounds It had sustained had been healed within minutes of It receiving them, one of the many benefits of being able to control the primordial tar It had been birthed from millenia ago. No this pain went far deeper than It had ever felt before. Why? Why had SHE betrayed It? Now It's brethren hunted It through this dark forest. It, HER oldest and most powerful servant. Was that It? Was that why SHE had attacked It? Had it grown too powerful? That was the only conclusion It could come to. Soon the pain was replaced with something older, more familiar to It. Rage, SHE wanted to make It an enemy did SHE? Fine then It would make sure that Salem felt every bit of It's rage. It would need an army to fight against Its former master's shadows, but where could It find one? It would have continued this line of thought if It hadn't heard the sniffles and felt the negative emotions that could only indicate a tasty meal nearby. Sure enough It saw the small human girl, good for little more than a snack, lying face down in the dirt. There was one of the humans sharp objects in her back and her lifeblood slowly leaked onto the forest floor beneath her. The ancient beowulf was about to begin it's feast on the small human, when she turned her head and looked at It. The beowulf didn't see the dark matted hair, or her tear streaked face. No, what It saw were the eyes, pure silver stared into glowing red. The beowulf immediately leaped back, It knew those eyes, It knew the damage they could cause. It quickly realised there was no danger, the human apparently didn't know how to summon her own power and would be dead within minutes anyways. Then a thought came unbidden to It. _How would SHE react to those eyes?_ It didn't know, but the answer to that question soon became very important to It. It would find out even if It had to do the unthinkable.

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 _Several minutes earlier_

"Hey, Neo, do you know where we're going?" Ruby asked her older, mute friend, who replied with a simple head nod. They were currently walking through the large forest just beyond the wall of the city. Ruby knew they weren't supposed to be here but she always found the forest, and her spars with Neo, to be well worth the risk of getting in trouble. This time however they had taken a different path that Ruby had never seen before.

"It's just it's getting late and if we aren't back at the orphanage soon Yang might get worried and try to find us." Neo seemed to pause and consider this before shrugging and offer Ruby a smile.

' _It's nearby, just a little farther.'_ Neo signed to Ruby

"What's nearby?" Ruby asked, she thought they were heading out to spar for a bit.

' _It's a surprise. We'll only be out here a few minutes that's all.'_ Ruby was a little disappointed when Neo signed this, she had been looking forward to the spar. But if Neo had a surprise it would be fine, she could use her new strategy next time. They continued on in silence for a few minutes until Neo stopped.

' _It's right here close your eyes'_ Neo signed to Ruby _'If you open them you'll ruin the surprise.'_ Ruby nodded and did as Neo asked, expecting that it would have to be a great surprise for them to come all the way out here for it. Suddenly without warning Ruby felt a sharp pain in her back. Her eyes shot open and she looked down to find the point of one of the kitchen's knives protruding from her stomach. Her vision quickly began to swim and she felt a small hand push her forward. The moment she hit the ground she heard the tiny sound of Neo's footsteps skip away.

"N-n-neo, why?" Ruby croaked out as her mouth began to fill with blood. She didn't know how long she laid there but after what felt like an eternity Ruby heard something moving beside her. She painfully turned her head to look at the source of the sound. Only to stare into the open jaws of a beowulf, for some reason she couldn't bring herself to care. Her life was already over, if her only friend other than her sister hated her enough to kill her, what could this grimm do to her? She couldn't even bring herself to be surprised when it jumped back suddenly. Her consciousness quickly began to fade as the grimm moved closer towards her.

' _Why don't you struggle?'_ Ruby couldn't tell where the voice came from within the black of her mind but she knew it was not her voice, it was deep and guttural, more like a growl with meaning than an actual voice

 _Why should I?_ Ruby thought back, _my best friend did this to me?_

' _I understand your pain, but why give up, your kind is not known for such things'_ the voice replied _'If I give you the ability would you take it? Do you have anything to live for'_ Ruby's thoughts immediately drifted to her sister whom she had kept in the dark about her and Neo's excursions into the forest. The voice returned _'that will do.'_ suddenly Ruby felt a burning sensation spread throughout her body, bringing her back to a very painful consciousness.

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Qrow was furious. He had come back from his extended mission to find that two of his teammates had disappeared on a mission for the Valean council, simultaneously leaving behind their two kids. But had the government seen to inform him or even check to see if there was any family who could take care of his nieces. No, they hadn't. The council's children's services had just stuck the two in some random orphanage, nevermind the contribution of their parents to the safety of the kingdom. So now Qrow was storming into his fifth orphanage that day. He walked right up to the office's main desk that had a young lady sitting behind.

"Hello sir, can I help you with anything?" the lady asked Qrow as he stormed up to the desk.

"You can not waste my time and tell me if you have a Yang Xiao Long or Ruby Rose here." Qrow said impatiently.

"I'm sorry sir, but we can't give out that sort of information to just…" The girl was interrupted by Qrow holding up his scroll, with his official government huntsmen ID displayed on the front.

"I said don't waste my time miss, now do you have them here or not" the girl looked flustered but motioned for him to wait a second.

"Uhm, yes sir, we do have a Yang Xiao Long here." she then turned to Qrow, "may I ask what…"

"Bring her out here please. Now." Qrow interrupted her. Her demeanor was getting increasingly upset but she did as he asked. A few moments later blonde pigtails appeared in the hallway.

"Uncle Qrow!" Yang ran and jumped on her uncle and immediately began bawling. "You're here! Everyone else is gone!" Qrow turned to the girl behind the desk.

"Whatever paperwork there is you better do it quick because I'm leaving here with her." Qrow said with a tone that brokered no arguments. He then turned to Yang "Yang, where's your sister? Where's Ruby?" Yang looked up at him with tearful eyes.

"I-I don't know," She said as more tears streamed down her face, "they said she ran away, but Ruby wouldn't do that! She wouldn't do that to me! Would she?"

"Of course not" Qrow new Yang needed support, but something else was going on, there was no way a five year old girl would be able to run away without anyone realising it was happening. "We'll find her I promise."


	2. Chapter 1

A pair of silver eyes stared out from the darkness of the alley into the dimly lit street.

' _Remember Ruby in and out as quickly and quietly as we can_ _'_ came the familiar dark voice _'_ _we shouldn't stay in the city any longer than we need to_ _'_

"Yeah, yeah, Don't worry I got it" Ruby said aloud to the voice in her head. She then left the dark alley moving down the street. She wore a red hoodie vest over her black t-shirt with a red rose on it, black cargo pants that allowed her red tipped black tail freedom of movement, black combat boots, black wristbands on either arm, and in a makeshift sheathe at her back sat a simple kitchen knife. Her true weapon however remained out of view as the combination butterfly sword, .50 Cal. over-under double barelled handgun, and multitool was hidden on an inside pocket of her vest. Only the large bullets sitting around her waist belied the hidden weapon. Ruby walked quickly along the street passing by the many closed shops, Before arriving at one of the few shops on the street that was open.

' _Here we are,_ _dust till dawn_ _,'_ the voice said before continuing to Ruby ' _remember we just need the bullets, not the dust, not the weapons magazines, and most definitely not any of the weapons_ _.'_

"I said don't worry!" Ruby replied "I remember the plan, I won't screw it up."

' _Right, sorry, you know how I get when we go into town_ _.'_ Ruby knew all too well as she could feel the fear and nervous energy radiating off of her mental partner. It was understandable, but starting to spill over into Ruby's emotions.

"Just keep a lid on it will ya?" Ruby said under her breath as she entered the store. The store was much like any other dust shop, with more commercial use dust types towards the front and a series of large dispensers running along one wall. Ruby quickly searched for the shelf full of boxes of ammo and, after finding it, began to look for her favorite brand. While most bullets used a concoction of fire dust with a little wind dust to propel them, Ruby preferred a little gravity dust in the mix to give her bullets a little more kick. As she found the bullets she was looking for Ruby spotted a chrome plated Atlesian sniper pike.

' _Ruby no_ _.'_

"aww c'mon, just imagine what I could do with a sniper rifle!" Ruby replied

' _I'm too busy imagining how much lien that would take_ _.'_ the voice rebutted. He had just finished his thought when the front door chimed open.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" said a man at the front of the shop. He sounded friendly enough were it not for the sound of a pistol charging up immediately after.

' _That sounds like a type 3 Valean_ ' Ruby thought to herself.

' _That's the pistol the police here use right?_ ' her ever present ride along companion asked.

' _yeah, it is'_ Ruby confirmed, ' _let's see what's going on.'_ Ruby finished as she started to move slowly and carefully towards the front of the store.

' _Ruby, we should leave_ ' the voice argued ' _I know you have your rule about bringing justice wherever you go, but Vale has their own police force. They can deal with a petty criminal._ ' Ruby pressed on, ignoring her permanent friend. Once she was close enough to see who was robbing the store she stopped and took stock of her unwitting opponents.

' _Five crooks, four of them wearing similar outfits, three machetes, one type 3 valean pistol, and one cane_ ' Ruby thought to herself.

' _yes that cane is going to be such a problem'_ the voice said with much sarcasm.

' _you never know…'_ Ruby started to reply until she caught the eye of one of the machete goons. She quickly ducked behind the shelf she was using as cover. ' _crap, I think he saw me.'_

' _these guys look like gangsters Ruby, like organized gangsters. Confronting them here could have serious repercussions._ ' The voice warned.

' _We'll see.'_ Ruby replied

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He could have sworn he had seen something duck behind that shelf, but the last time he had jumped into action at something like that he had been teased mercilessly by the other guys. Still never hurt to check.

He turned the corner to look down the aile, hand on his machete just in case, but he paused when he found nothing. He would have berated himself for being so jumpy and turned back to what he was doing, were it not for the thin, tiny arms that wrapped around his throat with surpising strength suddenly. Even as he grasped at them in an attempt to allow himself some air he found his efforts were blocked by something, he couldn't tell what but it stopped him from being able to pull the arms away from his throat. The answer hit him a moment later, an aura. He was dealing with, if the body pressed against his back were any indication, a tiny huntress. Even as the realization dawned on him, his world began to fade around him and he passed out.

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**THUMP**

' _Um, wasn't that supposed to be a silent takedown?_ ' the voice asked sarcastically.

"Shut up" Ruby deadpaned.

"Hey! You! Stop!" another henchman said as he rounded the corner bringing the Type 3 up and pointing it at Ruby. Ruby reacted by tapping into her semblence and body slamming the goon through the front window of the shop. As she and the goon made contact with the ground outside the shop, Ruby drew her weapon and flipped it to her sword mode, before slaming it into the ground, through the goons pistol, to stop her momentum. She then drew her sword up and got into a ready stance. The goons looked at her, the sword level with her eyes and pointed at them and the other hand out in front of her.

"Okaaaay…" the leader in white said almost deadpan "Get her." the remaining to henchmen jumped to action, charging Ruby with their machetes. The first to reach her went for an overhead swing. Ruby pairied easily and then delivered an aura infused flip kick to the goons face, sending him tumbling off to the side. The other goon was slightly more cautious, though not much as he went for the same overhead strike but the moved to block the follow up kick after Ruby pairied. Unfortunately Ruby didn't try the kick to his face, but rather used her semblence to get behind him and delivered a spine shattering kick to his back. He screamed out but fell to the ground finding his legs useless. Ruby turned and saw the other goon getting back up, and unslinging a Type 14 Valean sub-machine gun.

' _Ruby dodge!_ ' the voice called to her. It was unecessary however as Ruby was already drawing forth her semblence. She was well out of the way before the first bullets impacted the ground behind where she had been standing. Ruby then dashed in close and kicked the smg into the air. The goon stared in shock until Ruby brought the flat of her blade against the side of his face. She the followed her hit with a roundhouse kick which sent the goon to lying at the bosses feet.

"You were worth every cent truly you were." Ruby could hear the man mumble under his breath. "Well Red I think we can both say it's been an eventful evening and as much as I'd like to stick around and chat…"

"Who are you?" Ruby asked interupting the man's monologue. He seemed to freeze for a moment before developing a small twitch.

"Y-You don't know who I am?" the man said slowly. Ruby shook her head. The man suddenly started laughing "I'm on every news station in the kingdom! I'm the most wanted man in Vale! You don't know who I am?! I'm Roman Torchwick!" the man spat at Ruby.

"Oh, then you probably have a pretty high bounty on your head right?" Ruby asked in a sweet tone of voice.

"What?!" the man asked, only to widen his eyes in surprise as Ruby suddenly appeared within arms reach of him. He was able to pary her initial strike just barely and the two began a heated duel.

' _Ruby, somethings coming, it sounds like an airship._ ' the voice told Ruby. A few seconds later a bullhead came into view. Ruby jumped back as the bullhead targetted her with it's machine guns. A small rope lowered from the side of the bullhead and Roman ran to grab on to it. The rope winched him up and the bullhead began to turn away. Roman however wasn't done.

"End of the line Red!" he said as he pulled up a red dust cristal he had probably stolen from the shop. He then tossed the cristal at Ruby.

' _Grenade! Dodge Ruby!_ ' the voice warned Ruby, who moved to dodge but stopped when someone dropped in front of her. Romans attempt to detonate his improvised grenade were blocked by a purple glyph originating from the newcomer. She had blond hair and wore very proffesional clothing, and a dark purple cape. She looked at the bullhead and launched a volley of some kind of dust shots at the aircraft.

' _Ruby that's a huntress!_ ' the voice said, fear evident in its tone ' _We need to leave now!_ '

Ruby nodded her ascent and went to move away before she suddenly felt the gound of the street rapidly heat up like an oven. Ruby had just a second to attempt to dodge as her mind instictively told her this was bad. As Ruby leaped to get out of the way the ground suddenly exploded upwards, throwing Ruby even farther and causing her to roll uncontrolably. Meanwhile the huntress had managed to evade the bullheads attacks but was finding her own attacks to be blocked at every opportunity. When Ruby regained her bearings she saw that someone else was in the bay of the bullhead. She was wearing a red dress and had black hair and orange colored eyes. The next thing Ruby noticed was that the huntress wasn't able to get past the lady's defenses. Switching her weapon to it's gun mode Ruby took aim and fired shot after shot at the lady. Even after two reloads of her weapon Ruby still couldn't break the lady's defenses, to make it worse she had blocked Ruby's expertly aimed shots with her bare hands. That was like pouring salt on a wound. Ruby let out an almost ferral growl as she reloaded her pistol again. So upset was she that she failed to notice the gound heating up again. Ruby did however notice when an unknown force suddendly threw Ruby's body foreward, and out of the way of danger. While the huntress had been preoccupied saving Ruby the bullhead turned away and flew off.

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	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: It's finally done! No but seriously this chapter kicked my tail. I felt it was important to introduce Yang through her trailer since she was so different...but this was probably the hardest time I have ever had writing a fight scene. If any of you were wondering why I hadn't updated this story in a little bit, that's why. But yeah Yang's different because again, Taiyang died when Summer did. So Yang is an anxty teen who has been trained to use a scythe by her constantly drunk uncle. I know that a lot of people were interested in this fic so I decided to really buckle down on it while I was at my military annual training, unfortunately I had no signal at AT, so I couldn't upload till now.**

"What exactly were you thinking!" An irate Glynda Goodwitch nearly shouted at Ruby, "you put yourself and others in great danger!"

'Ruby, we need to get out of here! Now!' the voice whispered in Ruby's mind, as it had the entire way to the police station from the dust shop. 'Let me take control, I can take her easily and get us out of here!' between Glynda's scolding and It's frantic pleas to escape Ruby was quickly reaching her limit of what she was able to take.

"Shut up" she said it quietly but it caused both voices in the room to take pause.

"Excuse me?" Glynda said giving a small glare at the girl in question. Ruby took a breath and continued.

"I said shut up. You don't know who I am or what I am capable of, yet you come in here and lecture me like I am an idiot who doesn't know what she's doing." Ruby vented for a moment.

"Indeed, why don't you tell us who you are then?" another voice coming from outside the room spoke. Ruby felt a cold dread wash over her from her other half.

'We are so dead.' was all the voice said. Ruby looked cautiously, given her companions reaction, at the man that stepped into the room. He didn't look to tough, he was holding a coffee mug for himself and a plate of cookies that he set down in front of Ruby. Ruby cautiously picked one of the cookies up and sniffed it. Thanks to her companion her senses were enhanced far beyond what she would have had if she had been normal. She smelled no drugs or other foreign elements of the cookie and took a bite all while keeping her eyes on the two adults in the room.

"Well?" Ozpin asked. Ruby narrowed her eyes at the man. "Who are you that we should trust that you knew exactly what you were doing?" when Ruby didn't answer he continued, "It's just that your description and fighting style matches that of the Red Ranger, a vigilante who operates out in the reaches of Vale." Ruby realised that if this man already knew of some of her escapades, lying to get out of the situation wouldn't work.

"Yeah that's me," Ruby answered, "what's it to ya?" she said staring at him defiantly. Ozpin chuckled at her attitude.

"Why don't you tell me why a girl, as young as yourself, has taken it upon herself to single handedly act as judge, jury," He paused to take a sip of his coffee, "and executioner in the reaches?" Ruby scowled at him, so this is how he wanted to play it.

"Someone has to ensure that justice is enforced in areas where the kingdom's police will not go," Ruby answered, "and before you ask yes, I realise that I have no technical authority, and no, I don't care."

"Very well," Ozpin said, "but why?" Ruby could feel her scars itch at the question.

"Because if you let someone get away with hurting another person," Ruby said, "they'll just do it again and lead others to do the same."

"A good answer," Ozpin said, "Now, who are you?" Now Ruby was confused, the man knew who she was, he had as good as said so. "As you said you were operating without authority, so either the police will get to bring in the Red Ranger tonight or," he paused again and smiled, "well do you know who I am?" Ruby shook her head, "I am professor Ozpin, and I run a huntsman academy and I am always looking for talented students." Ruby realised what he was suggesting.

"Ruby, my name is Ruby Rose," she told him, "but I'm only fifteen, I thought huntsmen academy's don't take people until their seventeen."

'Ruby, what are you doing?' the voice asked in a panic, 'everyone there will be a huntsman or huntress, you know, the people that kill creatures like me!'

"Normally, yes," Ozpin said, "but as I told you, I run the school, if I want to make an exception I can."

"Alright, I'll do it." Ruby told him.

'Why me?' the voice asked dejectedly.

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Business was good for Junior. The dance floor that one of his goons had suggested was actually doing pretty well to bring in more money for the legitimate side of his establishment. Yes, everything was going well for Junior, then he noticed a girl walk in the door. Normally junior wouldn't be bothered with another customer walking in, but he recognized this girl's type. It may have been the cocky look she had, the flamboyant clothing, or maybe it was the hulking massive greatsword on her back, probably that last one. The girl was a huntress, or one in training by the looks of it. She wore knee high riding boots, short black shorts, a yellow tank top that exposed part of her midriff, a long brown leather trench coat, and her long blonde hair was tied into a ponytail that came halfway down her back. Junior headed to the portion of the bar that she was currently walking towards. If there was going to be trouble he needed to head it off quickly.

"Whiskey, no ice." the girl told the bartender.

"Aren't you a little young to be hitting it that hard?" Junior asked. It was unlikely but asking that question might be enough get her out of the club.

"Aren't you a little old to have a name like 'Junior'?" the girl responded.

' _Great_ ' Junior thought ' _not only is she not going to leave, she knows who I am, probably wants information._ '

"Well you know who I am," Junior said, "so what do you want?"

"This whiskey and this," she put a picture on the bar counter, it depicted a young girl with a dark red hair and silver eyes, "I want to know anything you know about that girl." Junior looked back at the young huntress.

"I'm sorry but I don't work for huntsmen or huntresses," he told her, "It's bad for my other business partners." Faster than Junior realized the girl grabbed his head and slammed it into the counter.

"Look again." the girl commanded. Junior got back up red faced.

"You'll pay for that, Blondie" Junior said while motioning for his men to grab the girl.

"Man, I was really enjoying this too." Yang said while looking at her half finished glass of whiskey. She then threw it over her shoulder where it shattered on one of the goons getting close to her. Next she grabbed the massive greatsword on her back and pressed a button that caused flame to jet out of several vents along the blade, lighting the poor goon on fire. The rest of the goons hesitated at their comrades screams, which gave Yang enough time to transform the greatsword into a massive scythe. She swung the scythe around her and caught several bottles from the bar on the curve of the scythe. She then swung the scythe causing the bottles to fly and shatter lighting several more goons on fire. As the rest of the goons finally decided to charge her she brought her scythe around and began taking them out two or three at a time. Once the goons were taken care of she was about to find Junior again when she felt bullets start flying by her head. She turned and saw the dj had pulled out an extremely old machine gun and was shooting at her. She switched her scythe back to a greatsword and threw the whole weapon at him. The dj ducked but still had the rediculous bear head he was wearing get pinned to the wall behind him on the massive sword. Yang ran and jumped after her weapon, when she got to the dj she grabbed the barrel of his machine gun and slammed the butt of it into his face. She then slammed his face into his mixer swept the legs out from under him and then stomped on his head to ensure that he was unconscious. Yang's attention was suddenly drawn to the red and white colored twins that had walked onto the dance floor beneath her, as the red one spoke.

"Melanie, who is this girl?" she sounded like a snotty teenager.

"I don't know Miltia, but we should teach her a lesson!" the white one said. Yang scowled as two girls began to charge towards her. She grabbed her sword that was stuck in the wall, pressed a button on the hilt and withdrew a pump action shotgun from within the frame. She began firing flare rounds at the twins, forcing them to begin dodging. Realising that they would need to close the distance in order to effectively fight this interloper, the red girl ran forward and leaped onto the dj stand. She swung at Yang with an overhead strike, which Yang blocked with the barrel of her then grabbed the girl by her hair and slammed it into the flat of her sword which was still embedded in the wall. As the Red girl stumbled back Yang returned the shotgun into the frame of her sword and withdrew it from the wall. Yang then swung at her opponent. The blade didn't connect with the girl but it did split the dj stand in half, sending both combatants to the dance floor below. Yang saw the white girl moving in to attack her and that the red girl was starting to get back on her feet. Deciding to deal with the red sister first since she was already slightly spent from the previous fight, Yang rushed her with a heavy horizontal swing. The girl looked up too late to do anything but watch as the massive greatsword caught her directly in the face. She went flying and fell through the glass off to the side of the dance floor. Now with only the white girl left standing, Yang turned and focused on her. The girl was skilled, using her heel blades quite proficiently. Yang was practically spinning her greatsword and blocking on both the blade and hilt, and still the girl was able to land several hits. Yang could feel her semblance starting to ignite and knew she could knock this girl out with one hit, if she could hit her. Yang got her opportunity when she managed to wedge one of the girls heel blades on her sword. Yang twisted the sword and stabbed it into the ground, simultaneously twisting the girls ankle and trapping her against the sword. Yang then grabbed the handle of the sword and swung herself around to deliver a devastating blow to the girls face while the afterimages of flames burned on her hair. With both girls down Yang once again began her search for Junior. She found him off to the side of the club walking in with, _'is that a rocket launcher!?'_

"You're going to pay for this Blondie." Junior said it calmly, with certainty. Yang scowled, and for a second neither of them moved. Yang moved first drawing the shotgun from the frame of her sword once again. She switched to the second magazine that contained spread shot, and pumped once. Almost at the same time Junior aimed the rocket launcher and fired six missiles from it. Yang used three shells to block the rockets when she noticed Junior charging her. She slammed the shotgun home and drew the sword from the dancefloor. Juniors first strike connected, the second Yang deflected with her blade, the third she caught on her hilt. Yang smirked, reeled back her hand and delivered a bone shattering punch to Juniors face. Glass windows along the back wall and Yang practically exploded as she delivered her strike. Junior fell to the floor a short distance away, and Yang took her time walking towards him. He tried to reach for his rocket launcher bat when he finally noticed her approaching, only to find it split in half as Yang's sword came down on it. He looked up as Yang kneeled over him.

"Now let's try this again…" Yang said.

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	4. Chapter 3

Ruby looked around the crowded airship and pulled her cloak down tighter over her ears. She knew she was getting a few weird looks because of the backpack on her back. Most people had stored their luggage in the cargo compartments of the airship, but the backpack she had carried a few changes of clothes, a weapon repair kit, a sewing kit, some survival supplies, and extra ammunition, in other words all of her worldly possessions. Her unfamiliarity with crowds was not helped by her companions attempts to track every possible threat in the crowd around them, which, being that it was a crowd of armed huntsmen and huntresses, was everyone.

"Stop it." she whispered under her breath.

'Sorry but you're the one who put us in this situation.' The voice spoke.

"We are safe," she could feel the voice starting to argue, "for now anyways." Ruby looked up as the doors opened and students began walking out into the courtyard. Ruby proceeded to follow. "We'll stay here, learn what we can, and head back out on our own once we are done." After a few moments the voice relented.

'Fine but I still think this is a bad idea, and no good will come of it.' It warned before it turned its attention outward once more, 'look out!' Ruby suddenly became aware of something in front of her. She and her companion had both been so focused on their discussion neither of them noticed that Ruby was about to walk into something. Unfortunately they both noticed to late, and Ruby tripped over a bunch of white boxes. Thanks to their enhanced senses Ruby could smell the dust inside the boxes and immediately regretted not watching where she was walking. By the time everything had come to a stop Ruby was extremely thankful that she was still in one piece and not a single bit of dust had exploded, or frozen, or hardened into rock. She got up and began to restack the boxes of dust where they were before, thinking that that would be the end of it.

"What do you think You're doing?" Ruby heard a shrill, accusatory voice off to the side of her. She looked up to see a girl wearing all white with even white hair standing there. Thanks to her companion Ruby could sense the emotions of people if she tried, but the girl in front of her was so ruled by emotions Ruby could feel them emanating off her. _'Anger, disgust and...fear?'_ Ruby looked again, the girl was in a subtle defensive stance, her hand straying very close to the rapier at her side. _'Definitely fear, but of what? Of me?'_ Suddenly Ruby's own fear jumped, ' _does she know what I am?'_

"Uh, can I help you?" Ruby asked. The girls eyes narrowed.

"What do you think you're doing? Thief." The girl answered. Ruby's fear fled but now she was confused. _'Why would she think I'm a thief?'_ Ruby thought.

'Uh Ruby what do you think we're holding?' the voice said to her. Ruby remembered the box in her hand and her eyes widened in realisation.

"Oh! Is this your stuff?" Ruby said, "sorry I was kinda lost in my thoughts and knocked it over. nothing exploded though so everything is fine!"

"A likely story." the girl huffed, "you do realise that we are in the middle of Beacon right?"

"Yeah, of course." Ruby said, but the girl continued on regardless.

"A place that is filled with huntsmen and huntresses, people dedicated to upholding the law and protecting society." the girl didn't even stop talking for a moment and the box was starting to feel a little heavy, so Ruby set it down. "So what in your tiny brain thought that it would be a good idea to make an attempt on me in broad daylight in the middle of Beacon?"

"What do you mean attempt on you?" Ruby said, "I just tripped over these boxes.."

"You tried that excuse already," the girl said, "I know your kind." Ruby's heart stopped, ice flowed through her veins, and her hand began to reach towards her weapon.

"M-my kind?" Ruby managed to get out.

"Yes, all you faunus know how to do is lie steal and hurt people." the girl said, her hand was fully on the hilt of her sword now. "So which are you, broken claw? Beast pack? White Fang?" the girls eyes narrowed and her hand clenched at the last one she mentioned. Meanwhile Ruby relaxed as she processed what the strange girl had meant. Faunus, the only thing going for Ruby remaining anonymous at a school like Beacon.

"Um, I'm a student here." Ruby said. The girl huffed.

"Better than your first story but still," the girl glared at Ruby, "you're too young to be here, and I seriously doubt Beacon would accept someone of your ilk." Ruby was fast growing tired of the conversation, or rather the constant accusations disguised as conversation.

"Whatever, I'm going to the auditorium," Ruby said as she began to walk away, "have fun restacking your boxes."

"Where do you think you're going, thief?" the girl shouted as she drew her weapon and pointed it at Ruby. At that moment, everything was as clear as crystal and as slow as molasses for Ruby. she could feel the spike in emotions from the girl, hear the steel leave it's leather sheath, smell the dust in the cylinders, ice, how appropriate. In a flash of rose petals Ruby was behind the girl with the flat of her weapons blade pressed to the girls neck.

"I don't know who you think you are, and honestly I don't care." Ruby said, her voice was harsh and very cold but also loud enough that those who had gathered around and were staring at them could hear. _In for a penny…_ "I have a code, I will fight and punish evil doers wherever I go for those who can't. So you had better think real long and hard before attacking someone who has done nothing." Ruby then collapsed her weapon and hid it in her jacket before walking away, leaving a stunned crowd and a spoiled rich girl paralysed in fear.

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'You went overboard' the voice said.

"I know" Ruby answered.

'We were supposed to stay under the radar, Ozpin even told you to.' the voice continued.

"I know" Ruby said again.

'And now we're lost.'

"I know already! Okay, it's not like this place has a map or something!" Ruby said indignantly. She was still fuming internally when she reached the corner of the building. It was due to this that she wasn't paying attention when she turned and ran into somebody coming from the other side. She looked at the figure she ran into at the same time they did the same.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry! Please don't kill me!" Ruby winced as she heard the blonde haired boy say that. She knew she had gone overboard, but this day had been stressing beyond belief. She sighed before answering.

"Why would I kill you?" Ruby asked, "I only hurt those who wilfully hurt others, you're here to learn to be a huntsman and protect others, Right?" The boy nodded.

"Uh, well, yeah." he said somewhat hesitantly.

"Then we are on the same side." Ruby said, "My name's Ruby, Ruby Rose."

"Jaune, Jaune arc," The boy answered, "short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it."

"Really?" Ruby asked with a flat voice as she tilted her head ever so slightly.

"They will!" Jaune answered, "at least I hope they will, my mom always said," Ruby raised an eyebrow, "nevermind." They said nothing for a second and just stood there, then that second became several seconds.

' _Crap!'_ Ruby thought _'I've never had to actually make conversation with normal people before! What do I do? Do I wait for him to say something? Do I say something? What do I do?'_

'It's a wonder we have survived this long with you're forethought.' The voice mocked. 'Oh, yes, we'll just pass ourselves off as another student, nevermind the fact we haven't had a conversation of more than a few sentences that didn't include threatening.'

' _Shut up'_ Ruby wasn't in the mood for the voices hijinks. She was about to ask Jaune something, she wasn't sure what yet, when he asked her something.

"So, uh, do you know where we are?" Jaune asked. Ruby looked at him for a moment.

"Uh, no, I was kinda hoping that you did." Ruby said, "well, we might as well search around together." They continued to wander for a bit until a green haired professor met them in the hallway.

"Students!" the man said, "what are you doing out here! The orientation speech is in only a few minutes!"

"Uh, we kinda got lost sir." Ruby said.

The man sighed before pointing down a particular hallway and saying quickly, "that way students, next time be sure to learn the layout beforehand!"

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When Ruby and Jaune finally reached the auditorium, Professor Ozpin had gotten on the stage and was preparing to give his speech. Ruby looked around the room, it was rather crowded, which told her that it was more than the first year students present here. While Professor Ozpin gave his speech, which she assumed was in some way strange due to the reactions of the first year students, Ruby was studying those who would soon be her fellow classmates. She only recognized a few of the students namely the white haired racist girl, and of course Jaune. There were however some interesting members of the group. There was an orange haired girl who just oozed love and excitement, and her friend who Ruby could read nothing from, odd. There were a few in the group who lacked the characteristic nervousness of new students, amongst that group was a faunus girl, though she had no visible traits.

'Look again' the voice told Ruby. and look again Ruby did, she still couldn't see anything until she saw a part of the girls bow twitch.

' _She has ears!'_ Ruby realised before fiddling absently with the hoodie that still covered her own ears, _'why didn't I think of that? It would definitely stay on easier than this thing'_

'Because you have no idea what fashion in the city is like?' the voice answered her question, 'besides you like hoods.' Ruby couldn't deny that, for some reason they just felt right to her.

"-Ruby? Remnant to Ruby." Ruby suddenly realised that Jaune was talking to her.

"Sorry, I was lost in thought, what did you say?" Ruby asked the boy.

"I was saying we should go get our stuff before the others," Jaune said, "are you all right? You kinda spaced out after the speech was over."

"Like I said lost in thought, that happens with me sometimes." Ruby answered.

"Oh, well, do you want to go get our stuff?" Jaune asked again.

"What stuff?" Ruby asked.

"Y'know luggage and stuff." Jaune shrugged. Ruby wondered for a brief moment why they would need luggage when the voice explained what she hadn't heard because they were conversing in her head.

"Oh, this is all I have." Ruby answered motioning to the bag over her shoulder. "So I guess I'll just head over to the ballroom." Jaune's eyes widened.

"That's all you brought?!" he said incredulously, "I wish I could pack like you." he then shook his head and walked the same way most of the other students were walking. Ruby then looked towards where a few of the students were already walking with their luggage and followed them. She entered the ballroom and found only a few students in it. They were picking spots on the floor in which to sleep. There was a line on the floor that separated the boys area from the girls area. Ruby picked an area near a window which could serve as an exit if the situation demanded it. Once she had everything set up, a relatively simple affair for Ruby, she pulled out her journal and began to review notes on her most recent target.

'You planning on still going after him?' the voice asked Ruby.

"I haven't let a criminal like him escape for long before," Ruby mumbled under her breath, "I don't intend to start now."

'Fine, we'll need more info on him than what we got right now though' Ruby nodded in agreement.

"Beacon will pay for a scroll for all students who don't already have one." Ruby reminded the rogue Grimm, "I can use that to search for him on the internet and find out more about him, and vale's criminal networks."

'Just don't try to take them all out, ok?' the voice was almost pleading this time.

"I'll pace myself, ok." Ruby answered. After Ruby finished checking over her notes she decided to turn in early in preparation for the next morning.

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"Wake up! Lazy Bum!" Ren groaned as he heard the voice of his long time friend. Normally he would just sigh at his childhood friend's antics, but last night had been difficult for him. He had a wonderful semblance that allowed him to mask himself and a few others emotions as well as detecting if any Grimm are in the area. However the second part of his semblance was apparently going haywire. It was telling him there was a Grimm, here, in Beacon of all places. He knew it was absurd, but he couldn't shake the feeling. As a side effect it had kept waking him up through the night. Ren turned his tired eyes towards Nora who was bouncing around singing, "It's Morning! It's Morning!" When she caught his eyes though she stopped, mid sentence.

"Hey are you okay Ren?" she asked suddenly very concerned. Ren looked at the girl and afforded a rare smile that only she had been privy to seeing.

"I'm fine, just tired I suppose." He told her.

"Still feeling that Grimm around here?" Nora asked, Ren nodded, "Well don't worry! Once we pass initiation we'll just talk to one of the teachers about it!" Ren smiled again at the girl's attempt to cheer him up.

"Thanks Nora, we should probably start getting ready" Nora nodded and began skipping off to the Chow hall with Ren following slightly behind.

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	5. Chapter 4

Pyrrha looked around the locker room. People were still coming in, but fortunately she wasn't being mobbed by a bunch of fans. Moving to Vale had been the right Idea apparently. She turned around and began to punch in the code to her locker. She removed her weapons and what parts of her armor she wasn't already wearing. She was in the middle of tightening her arm guard when she caught a flash of white in the corner of her eye.

"So Pyrrha, have you given any thought as to who's team you'd like to be on?" the girl, who Pyrrha recognized as Weiss Schnee. _'Oh boy, here we go'_ Pyrrha thought to herself _'I can see where this is going_.' "I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong well-known individual, such as yourself."

"Hmm, I'm not quite sure," Pyrrha said, "I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

"Well, I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together." Weiss said.

' _Aaaand there it is'_ Pyrrha thought, _'why am I not surprised?'_

"That sound grand!" Pyrrha lied.

"Great!" Weiss said excitedly.

' _If there is anyone up there, a little help? Please?'_ Pyrrha silently prayed. At that moment a Faunus girl with a hoodie vest that hid most of her face and a wolf tail stepped between the two.

"Excuse me." she mumbled before turning around and shouting, "Jaune! I found it!" A blonde haired boy in a jeans, a hoodie and armor rushed up.

' _Thank you, I'll never doubt you again!'_ Pyrrha thought. She looked at the two newcomers, they hadn't cared who's conversation they were interrupting. Perhaps they just didn't care about titles or accolades? "Hello there, ?" Pyrrha said asking the two for their names.

"Oh! Hi, the names Ruby, and this is my friend Jaune!" The red hooded Faunus girl said. The boy Jaune awkwardly waved from behind her, before turning and opening his locker.

"I'm Pyrrha, It's a pleasure to meet the both of you." Pyrrha said. Then there was a huff from behind two newcomers.

"You again." Weiss said, practically glaring at the Red hooded girl. Pyrrha was honestly surprised at the animosity coming from the Schnee girl.

"Oh, Hello." Ruby turned and said to Weiss, "Is there a problem?"

"'Is there a problem?'!" Weiss practically screeched, "Just who do you think you are?"

"A huntress in training." Ruby replied, "that's all that matters any title or fame you think you have matters none to me." Pyrrha could see that the boy, Jaune, had finished getting his equipment out of the locker and apparently Ruby had seen it too, because she turned to Pyrrha. "It was a pleasure to meet you Pyrrha I look forward to studying alongside you."

' _Is that her asking me to team up with her?'_ Pyrrha thought. Apparently Weiss had a similar thought.

"Nice try but Pyrrha is already teaming up with me." She said haughtily.

"Actually I believe the teams are comprised of four people each." Pyrrha interjected. Weiss looked at Pyrrha with wide eyes, as if she couldn't believe that the champion would be willing to team up with these two pleblans. However Ruby's reaction was even more interesting. She got a confused look on her face.

"Teams?" She asked Pyrrha.

"Yes we're supposed to be training and working together in a team for our time at Beacon." Pyrrha answered.

"Oh, he didn't mention that." Ruby's mumble was barely audible but Pyrrha was close enough to hear it.

"How could you not know that!" Weiss on the other hand was getting louder the longer the conversation went on.

"I only got asked to come here a few days ago." Ruby answered, "I'm sure there is plenty that I will need to pick up along the way." Pyrrha was about to ask Ruby who she was talking about and what she meant by being 'asked to come here' when the loudspeaker came online.

"Would all first year students report to Beacon cliff for initiation." The voice of Glynda Goodwitch said, "again all first year students report to Beacon cliff immediately."

"Oh, that's our signal, see you guys out there!" Ruby called as she began to walk towards the exit.

"H-hey! Wait for me!" Jaune called out before taking off after the red hooded girl.

"It was nice meeting you!" Pyrrha called out after them.

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Ruby could hear the heavy footsteps as Jaune caught up to her.

"Sooo," he began.

"So?" Ruby raised an eyebrow at his attempt to start a conversation.

"Teams." Jaune said.

"Yep." Ruby said.

"Want to be on the same one?" Jaune asked, "i'm thinking you and me would make a good one." Ruby considered it for a moment. She had no idea about Jaune's skill level or academic prowess. Then again she hadn't planned on having a team anyways.

"Sure." She said, "It will be interesting to work with someone else for once." Ruby finished as they reached the cliff. Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch were already there, though Ozpin was busy with something on a scroll.

"Please pick a platform and stand on it." Professor Goodwitch said. Ruby and Jaune both picked an open platform near the two teachers. Ruby felt some slight give in the platform beneath her.

' _Huh, a springboard?'_ Ruby wondered internally.

'They're probably going to launch us into the forest with them.' the voice commented.

' _I would hope so, any other directions just going to result in a painful faceplant.'_ Ruby replied.

'True but maybe that's the intention, it would be rather funny.' the voice said with a bit of mirth.

' _Why do you always take pleasure in the suffering of others?'_ Ruby asked.

'Uh, hello, Grimm.' the voice answered, 'it's kind of our thing.' Before Ruby could retort again professor Ozpin began speaking.

"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the emerald forest." Ozpin said.

"Now I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams." Goodwitch picked up from where Ozpin left off, "well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates, today."

"Makes sense," Ruby said under her breath, "if they're going to be working together they'd want to get started as soon as possible."

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin explained.

"Again makes sense, why are they dragging this out?" Ruby mumbled again.

"That being said the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." Ozpin finished.

"Oh." was all Ruby could say.

'Well that seems counterintuitive.' the voice commented.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest." Ozpin instructed, "you will meet opposition along the way, do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." Jaune gave a nervous laugh besides Ruby. "you will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene, you will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics, each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will guard that item as well as your standing and will grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" Only Jaune spoke up.

"Uh, yeah, sir?" he said.

"Good now take your positions." Ozpin expertly ignored the young man.

"Uh, sir?" Jaune tried again, "I've got a, um, question." As Jaune was talking the pad's started to activated, launching the students one by one into the forest. Ruby saw this and blocked out everything else and focused on how she was going to land this. Ruby began unraveling her wristbands and wrapping part of them around her hands, they would need a little extra protection for her landing. She suddenly felt a laugh coming from her other half.

"What?" She mumbled.

'I'll tell you later focus on landing right now' the voice responded, 'you're next to launch' Sure enough Ruby found herself sailing through the air not a second later. Ruby pinned her arms to her side for the first bit of flight and engaged her semblance as she wanted to capitalize on the momentum the launch pad provided. As soon as she felt that she was starting on the downward portion of her parabola, Ruby spread her arms wide and began to use that to slow her descent and direct herself. As she got close to a particularly dense portion of trees she flipped mid-air and curled in on herself to minimise the damage she would sustain by striking the branches of the various trees. At the same time her other half formed some bone armor to help make up for her Aura being much weaker than a normal human or faunus. After she felt the branches had slowed her momentum sufficiently, Ruby reached out and grabbed a nearby branch. Using her momentum Ruby swung around the branch until she brought herself to a stop on top of the branch. The remains of her cracked and broken bone plated dissolved as Aura took over and began healing the bruises on her arms and legs. Thankfully while her Aura was weak because of the Grimm presence within her, it would recover much quicker than a normal human or faunus. As soon as her Aura was back, Ruby began a quick survey of the forest beneath her. Using her senses of sight, hearing, smell, and emotions Ruby found it relatively easy to locate the other students nearby. She immediately noticed Weiss who was nearby, that was one partnership Ruby wanted to avoid. She noticed Jaune apparently in a tree but she saw Pyrrha was already almost to him. Seeing that most of the good options in the area were quickly being taken, Ruby decided to move towards the temple through the trees and hope she saw someone along the way.

"So, what was so funny?" Ruby asked her other half.

'You're friend was asking what a landing strategy was on the launch pad.' the voice answered.

"Friend? Who?" Ruby started to ask, however when she began to think about it she thought of Jaune. The more she thought about it she couldn't deny that she had unknowingly come to think of him as a friend. "Huh, when did that happen?"

'You really are clueless' the voice chided, 'It's not a bad thing human and faunus always find their strength in numbers, you'll need friends to survive'

"That's oddly supportive advice coming from you." Ruby said.

'I'm stuck with you remember I'm just looking out for my own skin' the voice defended, 'besides for whatever reason I can't feed from your negative emotions, so I have no interest in you continuing to fear betrayal from others.' Ruby paused at his words. She could still feel an ache in her chest whenever this subject came up. She was about to say that the voice may be right, when it suddenly spoke again.

'Heads up, someone's following us.' the voice quickly said.

"From below?" Ruby questioned as she began scanning the forest floor below. Feeling a negative response from her other half Ruby looked up. Following a good distance behind her in the trees was the little bundle of emotions that could only belong to a human or faunus. They weren't close enough to see and the wind was blowing the wrong direction for Ruby to scent who it was. Ruby decided she would circle around and try and find out who it was that was skillful enough to follow her through a forest.

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Blake silently swore. She had lost the girl in red again. The girl had first caught Blake's attention with her little incident in the courtyard. Blake figured that it might be good to be on a team with another faunus, especially one who was brave enough to walk around with her faunus trait on display. It would also help to distract away from Blake's own hidden traits. When the girl began to use the same tactic Blake did, sticking to the trees to find a good partner, Blake decided to follow the girl. A task she found to be much more difficult than originally anticipated. _'She's wearing red in the middle of a green forest'_ Blake thought, _'how can she be this hard to find?'_ Blake continued to move in the same direction as before in the hope of catching the trail of the other girl again.

"Hi!" Blake jumped back as the girl she had been trying to follow suddenly appeared in front of her, hanging upside down from a branch above them. "My name's Ruby, What's your name partner?"

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' _I'm too sober for this'_ Yang thought as she could practically feel her flask burning a hole in the pocket she had hidden it in, after all they couldn't confiscate what they couldn't find. Yang was about at her limit with her new 'partner' Weiss Schnee. It had taken all of a minute for Yang to decide she didn't particularly like the girl. By five minutes Yang had determined that one of them wouldn't survive the next four years. So Weiss's constant insistence that they were heading the wrong way was not helping the situation at all.

"Are you even listening to me?! Or are you just going to continue ignoring me?!" Weiss demanded.

"Yes, and Yes." Yang said as she gave in to her cravings and pulled the flask from within her jacket and took a swig of the burning liquid.

"What was that?!" Weiss screeched.

"Whiskey." Yang answered, she held up tiny flask and shook it slightly, "not the best I've had but it was cheap, and the guy would sell it to me." Faster than she thought the white haired girl could move Weiss had snatched the metal flask from Yang's hand and was scowling at the golden reaper.

"It is hardly appropriate for a huntress in training to so willfully violate a school rule," Weiss was scolding Yang now, "And for such a vile thing as alcohol!" Yang glared at Weiss and Weiss glared back. Red eyes bore in blue and vise versa, if anyone had been with them they might have seen sparks flying between the two girls.

"If you don't give that back," Yang said slowly, "You're gonna have a bad time."

Weiss huffed, stowing the flask in the pouch she kept at her back. "You'll need to learn how to listen to me if you're going to be on my team for the next four years." Weiss said, she then drew her rapier from her side. "I might as well give you that lesson now."

Yang sighed, "Y'know It's a beautiful day today, the sun is shining, birds are singing," Yang reached up and grabbed Brimstone from it's spot on her back. "Days like these, brats like you, should burn in Hell!" With that Yang swung Brimstone in it's greatsword form, at the same time she pulled a trigger on the handle sending plumes of flame jetting in an arc away from the reaper and towards the heiress. Weiss jumped on a glyph to avoid the flaming slash coming at her. She leaped off of said glyph in order to strike at Yang with Myrtenaster. When Yang blocked the blow, Weiss activated the ice dust she had readied and froze Brimstone to the ground. She then struck Yang across her face with the flat of her blade.

"Now are you going to listen to me or do we need to do this again?" Weiss asked, smirking, confident in her victory. Yang gave her a deadpan look and pulled the same trigger she had earlier. The ice on her sword cracked, then shattered, then exploded outwards.

"Fire, remember?" Yang reminded the girl as she swung her flaming greatsword around with one hand. Weiss spun her dust chamber, landing on a red dust type this time.

"Fine, I suppose I must fight fire with fire then." She said before charging at Yang, who in turn charged back. The following fight was grand and explosive, it would have continued on for quite some time had it not been for both combatants hearing the sound of growling behind them. They turned to see a creature shaped like a fox with nine tails, as tall as a horse, with pitch black fur and white bone plates.

"What is that!?" Weiss wondered aloud.

Meanwhile Yang had frozen, her grip on Brimstone tightened until her knuckles were white. Her answer was barely more than a whisper. "It's a Kumiho."

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A/N: alright sorry to end it right there guys but this chapter has gotten way longer than I intended it to be. Also we had a funny conversation when Irlr did some proofreading of this chapter.

Irlr: (reads Yang saying Weiss was gonna have a bad time) You know you made an accidental undertale reference?

Rekr: (smirks) are you sure that it was accidental?

Irlr: (keeps reading) Oh! you made a very intentional reference. That's almost word for word.

Rekr: Uh huh.

Anyways hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I'm thinking of putting descriptions of the weapons into the next couple chapters for anyone who is interested in more details of them. Also on the less positive note, I will be starting school again soon and will have significantly less time to write. I will return and finish my stories once school is over but the next few months may be very sporadic in when I am able to update these stories.


	6. Chapter 5

Ruby wasn't sure what to do. The girl that was following her was named Blake, and they had a friendly enough meeting. Since then however Blake hadn't said a word apart from those initial introductions. At first Ruby had thought that Blake might be as socially awkward as she herself was, but that proved to be untrue because Blake's emotions were completely calm. There wasn't even any anxiety from being in a Grimm infested forest. So Blake was apparently very confident in her skills and completely fine with the silence. This didn't really help with the awkwardness Ruby felt, but made it a little easier to deal with. She instead turned her attention towards the clearing they had wandered into. It didn't quite seem like a temple, but it was in the right place, and there were chess pieces on pedestals. They were clearly newer than the ruins around them and were probably the 'relics' they were searching for.

"Looks like this is it." Ruby said. Blake nodded in agreement before stepping towards the ruined platform that was supposedly a temple. Several of the pieces were already taken. Ruby observed each one before coming to one of the white knight pieces.

'Oh yes perfect for someone who always has to right whatever wrong is in front of them' the voice said, 'you should definitely go with that one!' Ruby laughed a bit as she grabbed it.

"Ok fine," She mumbled before turning to Blake, "I got it, let's go." Blake nodded again before turning to leave. That's when both of them heard it, a scream coming from the forest. Blake visibly tensed while Ruby began scanning the forest for some kind of clue as to who was screaming and where. She caught sight of a tangled bundle of fear, no rather terror flying towards them. Underneath the very visible terror rolling off of him Ruby could recognize the underlying Aura of her only true friend in the world.

"Jaune!" she shouted out before turning to Blake, "we have to help him!"

"How?" Blake asked. Ruby turned back to realise that Blake was right. Jaune had already slammed into a rather large tree and was currently breaking branches on his way down. Ruby was already moving towards him before he hit the ground, but he had certainly done so by the time she arrived.

"Jaune!" Ruby said, "Are you okay?"

"Uhhg" the boy managed to grit out. He slowly turned his head to look at the girl standing over him. "Ruby?"

"Yup." Ruby confirmed.

"Did he really fly the whole way here?" Blake asked as she walked up. Before either Ruby or Jaune could respond a rather large Ursa burst into the clearing, followed by the sound of explosions.

"Awwww, It's broken" Said an excitable orange haired girl as she rolled off the back of the Ursa.

"Did that girl just ride in on the back of an Ursa?" Blake asked.

"Looks like it." Ruby answered as the orange haired girl skipped over to the relics.

"Nora, don't ever do that again." came a male voice from behind the Ursa, not realizing that the girl in question had already moved on. He was alerted to her change of position when she started causing a racket near the relics. "Nora!"

"Hehe, Coming Ren!" the now named Nora responded before moving over to Ren. As she was doing so a cracking sound could be heard coming from the forest. The five people in the clearing looked to see as Pyrrha Nikos charged between a few trees with a very angry deathstalker on her tail.

"Jaune!" She shouted out as she dodged the deathstalkers attacks.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted back as he started to get back up.

"Did she just run all the way here with a deathstalker on her tail?" Blake asked.

"Probably." Ruby said. No sooner had she said this than she heard the sounds of heavy pawsteps and growling coming from the other direction, "great, what now?" Ruby mumbled to herself. Ruby could sense two emotionally charged figures coming towards them. One she recognized. Weiss and another person, whose emotions could only be described as 'raw untamed fury' ran at full speed towards them. Blake had apparently noticed the sounds too and had turned to see what was coming. Sure enough within seconds Weiss and a blonde haired girl Ruby unceremoniously dubbed 'fast and furious' ran into the clearing.

'Why fast and furious?' Ruby's other half asked.

' _Cause she's running and cause of her emotional state.'_ Ruby answered, _'plus it's a reference to that Spruce Willis movie.'_

'Ah, that makes sense. Incoming by the way.' Charging into the clearing right behind the two runners was a nine tailed fox like grimm with two of its tails on fire and a third with icicles sticking out of it.

' _What is it'_ Ruby asked.

'A kumiho, mightier than thou pricks who won't share territory.' The voice began to complain, 'seriously this one time…'

' _Stories later, how do I beat it.'_ Ruby interrupted.

'Their biggest advantage is that they can absorb dust and use it in combat.' The voice informed her as she switched her weapon to it's sword mode, 'they're fast and agile, though that shouldn't be a problem for you. Weak spots are the throat, joints, and tails.

"Got it." Ruby said aloud, "Blake with me!" she turned to the other newcomers, "happy girl and ninja boy work on keeping the deathstalker busy, Jaune and Pyrrha go pick a up the other gold knight piece and pocket it!" Nora smiled and charged in swinging her hammer wildly which freed Pyrrha to join Jaune at the Relics. "Weiss and Fast'N'Furious go work on the deathstalker!" While those two were closer to the Kumiho, Ruby could also smell the over abundance of dust on them and knew that would be bad for fighting this particular grimm.

"What did you call me!" the Blonde shouted at Ruby but dragged Weiss over to the other grimm nonetheless.

"Go for the leg joints and the tails!" Ruby shouted to Blake, who said nothing but began to leave shadow clones around and struck at the area's Ruby pointed out. Meanwhile Ruby began striking the same spots on the other side of the grimm. It seemed they were well on their way to giving the grimm the death of a thousand cuts when one of the swung and knocked Ruby off her feet. She looked up to see that the Grimm was looking directly at her and its mouth was glowing red.

"Ruby!" Jaune shouted as he and Pyrrha were running up to help. Pyrrha saw what was about to happen and threw her shield. At the same time the grimm opened its mouth and launched a fireball directly at Ruby. The shield swerved its course and dropped in front of Ruby just in time to deflect the fireball.

"Thanks!" Ruby said as she got to her feet. She looked Blake used a shadow clone to avoid being hit just like she had been. "New plan!" Ruby shouted "Jaune Pyrrha distract it, Blake you and I are going to target the tails!" Blake nodded and took off.

Jaune turned to Pyrrha "you have better range than I do so you target high I'll target low."

"Got it!" Pyrrha said enthusiastically. She then ran at Jaune and launched herself off of his shield towards the Kumiho's head. Meanwhile Ruby had turned into a flying bundle of rose petals. She quickly joined Blake, who had already gotten one of the tails, at the back of the grimm. She targeted one of the two flaming tails. Using her full momentum she swung at the tail and was able to cut right through it. Towards the front, Pyrrha managed to keep the Grimm's attention by striking towards its nose from above. When a it launch Pyrrha away with a fireball Jaune charged in and struck towards its throat with Crocea Mors. The Grimm howled in pain at the shallow cut before turning its attention towards Jaune. It tried to launch another fireball only to find that it sputtered out before it could leave the Grimm's mouth. The Grimm turned to find that most of its tails had been cut off above just above the stump. While it was looking back Jaune and a recovered Pyrrha targeted its front legs. The cuts were deep and brought it down. When it tried to get back up, Blake ran wrapped Gambol shroud around its neck and pulled it back to the ground. Meanwhile Pyrrha launched Ruby off of her shield into the air. Ruby then accelerated herself down towards the pinned Grimm. She drove her blade deep through the creatures skull. The group breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed on the ground as the Grimm began to dissipate.

"How's the other group doing?" Ruby asked. Pyrrha looked over at the group engaging the deathstalker. She saw its tail was frozen in a block of ice, and the blonde scythe wielder cut off one of it's large claws with a single swipe of her scythe.

"Pretty well actually." Pyrrha said. "Should we go help them?" Ruby rolled over and looked at the other group.

"Naw, they'd probably be done by the time we got over there anyway." Ruby answered. "Let's just take a quick breather before we head back."

"Agreed." Jaune and Blake said in unison.

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	7. Chapter 6

A/N So I made a mistake and uploaded the wrong chapter at first. shout out to Mecharic for letting me know. If he hadn't I probably wouldn't have noticed until I went to work on the next chapter, so yeah, thanks. anyways onto the story!

Ruby wasn't paying attention. She knew that she should, but she had just been handed her new scroll. If she wanted to conduct research on it, she needed to understand how to operate it. So while the rest of the teams were being called up, named, and given team leaders, she was running the tutorial program on the scroll.

'Pyrrha is trying to talk to you.' the voice in Ruby's head said. Ruby looked up and towards the redhead at her side. Pyrrha held a concerned look on her face.

"Don't worry, I'm listening." Ruby told her, the look on Pyrrha's face said that she didn't believe Ruby.

'Ruby we're drawing attention by not paying it ourselves.' her other half said, 'we will have plenty of time to hunt Torchwick down.' Ruby sighed and put away the scroll.

"Fine," Ruby said turning to look at the stage, "but one of you needs to explain how to work this thing to me." Pyrrha nodded with a smile to her new teammate.

"Next we have Weiss Schnee, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren," Ozpin was speaking as the group who fought the deathstalker stepped onto the stage, "and Yang Xiao Long." Ruby froze, it all clicked. She couldn't hear what else Ozpin was saying she couldn't see the rest of the group standing there, all she could see was that golden hair done up in a ponytail, and the girl standing beneath it. There was no way, right? Not after so long, it couldn't possibly be her. The chances of them deciding to go into the same profession, let alone the same school, would make that impossible right? Yet she could not bring herself to believe her excuses. Standing there on the stage was her long lost sister, Ruby knew.

'Ruby!' her other half called. Ruby was jerked out of her thoughts to see the group on the stage already walking off. 'Ruby what's going on, you've never ignored me before.' Before Ruby could answer mentally, another voice at her side spoke up.

"We just were called, we should probably head up there." Jaune spoke from the other side of Pyrrha. Who was still looking at Ruby intently.

"Ruby are you alright? You just turned really pale." Pyrrha asked with concern.

"Y-Yeah, just kinda thought I recognized someone." Ruby answered. She could feel confusion from her other half for just a second before it realized what she was talking about. Meanwhile the team stepped forward onto the stage.

"Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc, Ruby Rose, and Blake Belladonna." Ozpin began, "You four collected the White Knight pieces." Ruby was still so lost in her thought she almost missed what Ozpin said next. "From this day forward you will work together as team Rainbow (RANB), led by Ruby Rose." Ruby barely withheld a glare, there went any chance of just slipping by in Beacon. Ozpin had probably deliberately made her responsible for others to get her to engage. Speaking of which, Ruby quickly looked over her team, Pyrrha had a big smile on her face, Jaune gave a thumbs up, and Blake gave a short nod. Yeah, she wasn't getting out of this one.

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Yang wasn't sure what she was feeling. Not five minutes after she had been named leader of team YRVS (Rivers), the team that had fought the Kumiho during initiation came up. The name of the leader was what caught Yangs attention though. Ruby Rose. Had lady luck decided to finally cut Yang a break and drop the very thing she was seeking right in her lap? Yang looked closer at the girl on stage. No, she should have known. Yang couldn't see the girls face, hadn't ever seen the girls face thanks to that hood that always seemed to stay up, but she could see the tail swishing back and forth behind her. Her sister was human like her, this was just the universe being extra cruel to her. Deciding that was it, she waited until they were dismissed and followed behind her team towards their dorm.

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Ruby didn't understand, she knew her name had been mentioned to everyone, twice actually. So why had Yang just walked away? Had she forgotten Ruby? Was she truly alone in the world now?

'Hey!' the voice interrupted her thoughts, 'I'm still something aren't I?' Ruby held back a laugh.

' _Yeah, you're right,'_ Ruby thought as she began to look at her new team as they each grabbed a bunk. _'I've got you, and them.'_

"Alright team RANB!" Ruby said drawing her team's attention, "I know it's late but we should get to know each other before we get started so lets go around and each introduce ourselves with one fact about us and then everyone will get to ask one question, I'll go last." Ruby then nodded towards Pyrrha.

"Right, Uh, I'm Pyrrha Nikos," Pyrrha began, "and, uh, I Studied at Sanctum academy before coming here."

"Sanctum's in Mistral isn't it?" Ruby asked while looking deep in thought.

"Yes, it is." Pyrrha answered.

"Wait," Ruby said as her eyes widened, "Crap there goes my question."

'Knucklehead.' the voice teased as Pyrrha began to laugh.

' _Shut up.'_ Ruby retorted.

"What's your family like?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha stopped laughing and took on a more somber face.

"Well, it's really just me and my dad." Pyrrha said, "my mom was a huntress but she died before I could remember, so yeah just me n' my dad."

"Is your mom why you decided to be a huntress?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, actually, I talked my dad into getting me fighting lessons so I could compete in tournaments and I was able to convince him just recently that I should be strong enough to handle any grimm out there." Pyrrha answered before turning to Jaune, "alright your turn."

"Right." Jaune said, "Well I'm Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls of the tongue."

"I think you're forgetting a part there, Jaune" Ruby giggled.

"Nope. Not. At. All." Jaune said before continuing, "anyways, um, I'm from a little town called Ansel. So yeah."

"What is does your weapon do?" Ruby asked almost before Jaune had finished speaking.

"Um, well you've kinda already seen all it can do." Jaune said, "It's just a sword and a collapsible shield."

"Oh, well that's cool too," Ruby said, "I'm a major weapons nerd so I kinda put everything I could into Just Rose."

"Why did you ask what my family is like?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well my family is really important to me." Jaune said, "figured it would be a good way to get to know everyone."

"What's your family like then?" Blake asked

"Well, we're a kinda large family, there's my mom, my dad, my seven sisters, and me." Jaune answered.

"Seven?!" the three girls in the room said together.

"Wow, ok, well on that note, Blake it's your turn" Ruby said to get everybody back on track.

"Right." Blake said in a monotone voice.

"I'm Blake Belladonna," Blake said, "I grew up outside the kingdoms."

"Cool, what's your family like?" Jaune asked.

"I'm an only child so it was just me and my parents." Blake said.

"Why did you become a huntress?" Pyrrha asked.

"It seemed like a good fit." Blake's answer was short and to the point as always.

"Why do you hide your ears?" Ruby asked it innocently but Blake froze her eyes going wide.

"What do you mean 'hiding her ears'?" Jaune asked, "I can see them."

"How did you know?" Blake asked, ignoring Jaune. Ruby paused in thought for a moment, she wasn't sure if Faunus were supposed to be able to scent each other or not.

"I saw your bow twitch, like ears." Ruby explained, Blake seemed to relax.

"I wear the bow to avoid allot of the discrimination." Blake answered, "I'm sure you know about that sort of thing."

"Not really, I don't spend a ton of time around, well, people so…" Ruby answered. "Well I guess it's my turn, though I've already given a couple of facts." Ruby paused in thought again, "Oh, I know! I'm Ruby Rose and I've worked as a private eye before. Okay questions away."

"Um, alright" Jaune spoke up first. "Why do you always wear your hood like that."

"Oh, well I guess that makes sense as a question, I was going to have to show you guys anyways." Ruby said as she lowered her hood, allowing both of her pointed canine ears to jump up again. "Weird right? Most Faunus only have one trait but I've got two." Ruby didn't technically lie to them, she didn't claim she was a Faunus and she did have two visible traits.

"Not that weird, rare, yes, weird, no." Blake said.

"Okay, you said you were asked to come here," Pyrrha said.

"When did I say that?" Ruby asked, even as her other half started to remind her.

"When we were discussing teams." Pyrrha answered.

"Oh, yeah, forgot about that." Ruby said, "Yeah, I was asked to attend Beacon by Professor Ozpin, he even had to make an exception to allow me in early."

"Early?" Jaune asked.

Ruby nodded her head, "I'm only fifteen, but it should be Blake's question now."

"Why do you carry a kitchen knife at your back?" Blake said, "I know it's not your main weapon." Ruby sucked in a breath, she was hoping that particular subject wouldn't come up tonight.

"It was the weapon someone used when the first attempt on my life was made." Ruby said, she stared off into space for a moment. "So I carry it with me as a reminder."

"Reminder of what?" Pyrrha asked.

"I think that's all the questions for tonight." Ruby said, "We have a big day tomorrow."

"She's right," Blake said, "we'll have plenty of time for question and answer games."

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A/N alright so not a whole lot of action tonight but we do have some interesting things going on. Ruby's team has gotten some answers but raised even more questions. Also this is like the first time in the whole story someone has seen Ruby's face without the hood. Anyways so yeah, I haven't been able to get as much done on these stories as I was expecting to be able to these last few weeks. I've got like one week left before I'm back on an almost total hiatus, so we'll see how much more I can get done in this time. Hope you all enjoy!


	8. Chapter 7

"Good morning team RANB!" an excitable voice exclaimed, rousing Jaune from his slumber. Jaune groaned and turned to look at the owner of the voice. Ruby was up and about with that big smile he had seen on her since the day he met her. Although even now he could tell that her smile wasn't reaching her eyes. It hadn't since the team naming ceremony last night. Jaune didn't know quite what upset her but it was obvious to him she was putting on a brave face, probably for their sake. Ruby was once again dressed with her hood up and covering her head. Which was a shame because her eas were pretty cute. _'Wait, does that sound wrong?_ Jaune thought to himself, _I mean she said she's only fifteen…_ apparently Jaune wasn't the only one who noticed Ruby's hood.

"Ruby why aren't you wearing your uniform?" Pyrrha asked.

"My what now?" Ruby answered. This seemed to be a common thing so far, Ruby would know anything and everything about grimm, fighting, or weapons, but seemed to know absolutely nothing about going to school. After a few minutes of talking, some of which was spent explaining to Ruby how the whole school thing worked, the team had come up with a plan. Thankfully the use of the team bathroom was given to Jaune so that he could change in there while the team changed in the room. Soon enough everyone was dressed and ready for the day, though Ruby still opted to wear her hoodie vest with her uniform.

"Alright team, So according to this handy dandy planner book thingy they handed out to the team leaders…" Ruby said as she pulled out said book. "And according to it we have a bunch of classes together starting at nine."

"It's only seven thirty right now we have plenty of time" Blake said, "we should probably do some unpacking." Ruby looked around.

"Uh, ok, yeah, sure." Ruby said, "that shouldn't take to long. Right?" The team then split up to work on their respective unpacking. When Jaune finished with his unpacking he looked around to see who was still working. Ruby was standing by the door on her scroll, Pyrrha was still unpacking extra pairs of her armor, and Blake, Blake had a lot of books. They seemed to be making good progress on unpacking until they heard a shrill screech from the other room.

"DID YOU SAY NINE O'CLOCK?!" the scream could only have come from the white haired heiress of team YRVS. "IT'S EIGHT FIFTY-FIVE YOU DUNCE!" the scream was followed by the sound of a door slamming shut.

"Oh, crap." Ruby said from beside the door, "uh, guys we've got to get to class." the team needed no further encouragement. Soon the entire team was running to get to their first class.

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Jaune knew going into beacon, it wouldn't be easy. He expected to get his butt handed to him more than a few times, but he was certain he could overcome anything they had to throw at him. He was wrong. It wouldn't be crazy combat or grimm that did him in, it would Professor Port and his long aimless stories. They were barely five minutes in and already the guy had hit on half of team YRVS and rambled about himself and "protecting the world from the world," mainly himself though. Sighing in boredom, Jaune turned to look at the rest of his team sitting in the row with him. Pyrrha was busy actually taking notes, simply amazing. Blake was reading a book. Ruby appeared to be taking notes, not on the lecture but rather whatever was on her scroll. She had been practically glued to the thing since she got it, maybe she really did grow up outside civilization. The class proceed almost uneventfully, Weiss volunteered to fight a grimm in class, which she then took out pretty quickly. As the class was ending Jaune asked Ruby which class they had next. Without even looking up from her scroll and notebook she answered.

"Combat class"

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Ruby checked the clock as she sat down in the stands around an arena. They still had just under a full minute to spare. Ruby considered pulling out her notebook and scroll to do more research on Torchwicks activity, but she was fairly certain she had all the information she needed to begin "nightly activities". On top of that if she was going to work well with her team she should probably figure out where each of them, herself included, landed in terms of student skill levels. Team YRVS wound up going first as each member went up and sparred with their partner. When Yang went up Ruby ignored the pang in her chest at the thought of her long lost sister, and decided to study her sister's fighting style. The weapon Yang wielded was large and flashy, Ruby couldn't imagine trying to wield that sort of weapon in her investigations. Yang and Weiss's bought got, _heated_ , to say the least. Yang's fighting style was just about as flashy as her weapon, both made use of copious amounts of fire dust. Furthermore Yang pulled no punches, as it were, had it not been for Weiss's glyphs Yang's style would have been overkill. As it were it became difficult to see the two amidst the fire that both opponents were using. Even worse Yang and Weiss both had huge amounts of anger directed towards each other. Enough that Ruby's other half was drinking in the atmosphere and enjoying it thoroughly. Eventually Yang showed superior endurance as Weiss all but collapsed when the buzzer rang.

The other two Ren and Nora, their fight was more like play fighting than anything else. It ended with Ren conceding the victory to Nora. Soon though the time came for Ruby's team to begin their rounds.

Ruby moved to the center of the arena along with Blake. As they squared off Ruby began to read her partner's emotions. There was confidence, there always seemed to be with Blake in combat, but she could also detect a hint of wariness. Not fear, but wariness.

' **Good, she's one who's gonna learn quickly'** Ruby's other half said. Ruby smiled and nodded, the motion just enough that it could be mistaken as a nod at Blake.

"Blake, give me a good fight, I want to know what you can do." Ruby said.

"Of course." Blake said simple while grasping the weapon on her back. Ruby in turn reached into her vest and grasped the small handle of her weapon. They stood opposite to each other for a good few seconds, neither drawing their weapons nor moving towards each other. It was little more than a flinch on Blake's part that set Ruby into action. Ruby activated her semblance briefly before sliding on her knees under Blake's horizontal swing. At the same time Ruby flipped her weapon over to its gun mode and fired under her arm towards Blake's back. Fortunately Blake had been in the process of turning around to come back at Ruby, and was able to see the flash of the muzzle. She jumped back leaving a shadow clone behind to take the bullet. Meanwhile Ruby had turned around and flipped her weapon back into its sword form. Ruby charge in and locked blades with the cat faunus, she barely had a millisecond to react as a second blade wound its way underneath her guard and darted towards her throat.

' _Crap, of course she's got a second blade'_ Ruby thought as disengaged using her semblance.

' **Not only that, she went for the kill.'** the voice said.

' _Yeah, she's got combat training'_ Ruby replied.

' **Or been in a fight to the death before'** the voice commented.

' _Yeah well, she's not the only one.'_ Ruby thought as she charged back in again. This it time she went low again, under Blake's swing and striking at her ankles. Blake meanwhile switched her sword into pistol mode and emptied a magazine at Ruby. As Ruby charged back in with her sword Blake switched back to sword mode and the two began engaging in hit and run fighting against each other. The fight continued for a while until Ruby found that one of the issues of having a weakened Aura was that she couldn't last as long in such fights.

"Very good miss Rose, Miss Belladonna." Professor Goodwitch said as the buzzer sounded. "That was quite the impressive display, Miss Rose it might behoove you to work on strengthening your Aura as a small amount can and will put you in hazardous situations."

' _If only you knew how much work I've already put into strengthening it'_ Ruby thought.

' **Wouldn't be an issue if we could use bone armor'** the other half said, though Ruby pointedly refused to dignify it with a response.

"Now it's time for your teammates, Miss Nilkos, Mister Arc, step up please." Goodwitch finished talking. Jaune and Pyrrha got up on the stage, and promptly had the quickest fight in the whole school. It took Pyrrha ten seconds of notstop pounding to deplete Jaunes Aura, but his shoddy defense and telegraphed attacks ensured that Pyrrha was more than able to complete those ten seconds without much pause. After which Professor Goodwitch gave Jaune pretty much the exact opposite lecture saying that, "having a large Aura pool does not negate the need for technique." and "you cannot rely on your Aura to always save you in battle."

Throughout the rest of class Ruby was able to determine that for the most part her team was above average, but would probably have good competition with team YRVS. though she was not looking forward to facing her sister in combat, even if she couldn't remember her. They continued throughout the different class orientations and then went back to the dorm room when they were released. There wasn't much in the way of homework on the first day so everyone just went to do their own thing. Jaune talked Ruby into trying out something called 'video games' which Ruby found difficult to learn at first but then found she enjoyed it once she was able to figure out how to beat Jaune. Soon enough though night rolled around and everyone went to bed. Almost everyone.

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Ruby listened as each of her teammates in quick succession fell into a calmed a rhythmic breathing pattern indicating that they had fallen asleep. Once they had all done that Ruby, very carefully, got out of bed and moved to get dressed. Ruby wasn't certain how heightened Blake's senses were compared to her own, but she decided to play it safe and kept as quiet as possible. Soon enough Ruby was out and on her way down the cliff to the city of Vale below. The streets were mostly deserted at this time of night of course, but Ruby had gotten a lead on a local information broker. She made her way through the streets towards the club ran by a man named Junior. When she arrived she saw that there was a sign on the door, Closed until further notice. Ruby looked around until she saw a man standing nearby the door. He looked an awful lot like one of the goons that was helping Torchwick the other night.

' **That doesn't bode well for our investigation'** Ruby's other half commented.

"Either this Junior is in league with Torchwick, or Torchwick is trying to silence Junior." Ruby mumbled aloud, "let's get in there."

A quick look around the building found that almost all the windows on the upper floors were blown out for some reason. Ruby went to an alley out of the view of the goon outside and kicked between the walls of the buildings on either side to get up to one of the broken windows. Swinging herself inside the club she found a large open room with a glass and tile floor that was cratered and broken in places, and a bar on one side. Fire damage was present throughout the place. Looking for a way to get across the room Ruby found near the windows were some metal support beams holding various lighting devices that stretched all across the room. Ruby quickly and quietly left the window sill, grabbed onto one of the beams, and swung herself on top of it. Ruby then made her way across the beam. As she did so she turned her ears towards the people on the floor

"What a mess." one goon holding a dustpan said.

"I know right, it's been four days and we're still cleaning this mess up." another goon holding a broom responded to him.

"I'm just saying maybe we should change the policy if it's going to result in half our group getting laid up in the hospital with severe burns." another couple of goons were conversing a fair distance away.

"Doesn't matter what we think, it's Juniors decision." the goon he was talking to said. Ruby took in all the conversations going on and started making her observations.

' _Okay number 1, these people work for junior, so more likely in league with Torchwick, the question is to what level.'_ Ruby noted, _'2 severe fire damage, mentions of a huntress, damage consitsent with a heavy weapon, but most likely a blade, large numbers of these guys in the hospital indicates an affect crowd weapon, blonde hairs lying around… Yang was here and caused trouble.'_

' **You sure it was Yang?'** the voice asked.

' _It's the most likely scenario.'_ Ruby answered, _'it could have been a different huntress but all the things match Yang and a full huntress wouldn't have come here to cause trouble.'_ Ruby's thoughts were interrupted when one of the goons called out for Junior. Ruby watched as a man wearing a vest and similar dress code to the other goons came out. His face was pretty bruised up, to the point he wasn't all that intimidating anymore. He went over to the goon that called him and began checking over the stock that remained behind the counter. Ruby decided that now was as good a time as any to make her entrance. She reached and pulled up the red handkerchief she had added to her outfit for this outing to cover her face. Then she simply stepped off the beam she was crouched on top of.

"Boss!" one of the goons called out as he saw Ruby drop in behind Junior. Junior whirled around and the goon nearest to him charged Ruby with a red machete. Ruby ducked underneath the goons swing and kicked out with her semblance to knock the blade out of the man's hand. She then delivered a flying roundhouse kick to his face. Before finally drawing her weapon and flipping out the sword function she put the blade to Juniors throat as the rest of the goons were drawing their weapons.

"HOLD IT!" Ruby called out, "I JUST WANT TO TALK!" Junior motioned for his men to back off, and Ruby withdrew her weapon and turned to Junior.

"You." Ruby said pointing, "do you work for Torchwick?" Junior seemed confused for a second before getting rather indignant.

"What? No!" Junior said, "the only interaction I've had with idiot was when he hired some of my men and never came back. If that's all you wanted Red, I suggest you leave the shops closed."

"That's not it." Ruby said, "I've heard you deal in information, how much?" Ruby asked.

"Depends on the information, but probably more than you can pay kid." Ruby looked around dramatically.

"I'd say you could use every Lien you can get your hands on." Ruby said. She could feel the irritation radiating off of him, fortunately it wasn't directed at her. "All I need is information on the recent dust robberies."

"There's not much." Junior said.

"Then it shouldn't be worth to much, right?" Ruby said.

"Five hundred." Junior said.

"Too much," Ruby replied, "one"

"Like you said I need Lien right now, five is already pretty cheap." Junior bartered back, "three fifty."

"There's not alot right? I don't know if this will be a waste of my time or not." Ruby was fully in the swing of bartering now, "one fifty."

"You won't find another person going this low." Junior replied, "two fifty"

"I already know some things about the robberies but I want a better picture," Ruby said, "two hundred, plus another twenty five if it's information I haven't heard before."

"Make it thirty five and you have a deal." Junior said.

"That's acceptable." Ruby said and drew her wallet, slowly, and pulled out the two hundred.

"Well Torchwick is supposed to be behind them," Junior said as he took the lien.

"That's all over the news, you can do better than that." Ruby said.

"Yeah well, the thing is one of my boys saw some White Fang at one of the robberies." Junior said.

"White Fang?" Ruby asked.

"Y'know Faunus terrorists, grimm masks, the whole nine yards." Junior answered, "Jeez girl where are you from?"

"Out of town, but I know who your talking about now." Ruby answered, "so what is Torchwick working with terrorists now?"

"Can't say for sure, that guys would do anything to make a Lien, but," Junior paused, "I can't imagine him being willing to work with them, he hates people like you, major racist."

"Great." Ruby said sarcastically. "So there's two groups of robbers?"

"Don't know but there's only one robbery a night, and there's one almost every night." Junior said.

"Thanks." Ruby said, handing over another thirty-five Lien, "hope you get your shop fixed up."

"I will, see you around Red." Junior said, as Ruby walked out the front door this time.

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 **A/N: I said I wasn't done with these and I meant it! This story is one of my favorites but is also one of the hardest to write, but I'm working on it. We get to see a little bit more of Ruby's vigilante skills in this chapter as well as a little more team interaction. Anyways I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.**


	9. Chapter 8

"AAAAHHH!" Ruby winced as Jaune got smacked across the face again by Cardin's mace. While her investigations into Torchwick at night were going fairly well, her team at Beacon seemed to be struggling. Not in the sense that they were falling behind, they actually were ranked second in the year, but rather because their teamwork needed a ton of work and her teammate currently in the ring apparently didn't know how to use his own weapons. When the buzzer rang indicating Jaune's aura had run out, Professor Goodwitch gave the both of them some pointers and then dismissed them.

"Maybe I should talk with him." Ruby heard Pyrrha whisper from beside her.

"No I'll do it," Ruby said, "I'm the team leader, It's my responsibility to figure out what's going on." Pyrrha paused and then nodded. Ruby checked the clock, it was an early release today for the weekend, and this was their last class for the day. Ruby made her way towards Jaune as he got out of the locker room. "Jaune!" Ruby called out.

"Hey Ruby what's up?" Jaune asked.

"We need to talk." Ruby said, as she grabbed his hand and activated her semblance. She wasn't able to drag him very far before her semblance puttered out, but they were now alone in a secluded hallway.

"Ruby. Don't do that again." Jaune said while settling his stomach.

"Sorry." Ruby said while panting from the exertion. After a few moments they both recovered.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Jaune finally asked.

"You." Ruby said, "Or more specifically your performance in combat class." Jaune seemed to sag as Ruby said this. "Jaune you've been in four fights so far and lost every single one. You didn't even land a hit in two of them."

"I know." Jaune said, she could feel the self defeating attitude radiating off of him.

"Hey, I'm not trying to make you feel down," Ruby said, "I'm just saying maybe you could use some help."

"You think I need help?" Jaune asked, he seemed to bristle as he said this.

"Jaune, I don't think, I know." Ruby said a little more firmly this time, "I don't know what your teachers were teaching you but apparently it doesn't measure up."

"Probably because there weren't any." Jaune said after a moment, "I lied to get in." Ruby paused wondering if she heard right, though her other half confirmed her ears.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't take any practical tests, I got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied." they both paused a little bit after Jaune's outburst, then Ruby snickered.

"W-what's so funny?" Jaune asked, as Ruby started into full laughter.

"That's it?" Ruby said, "that's what's bugging you?"

"W-well yeah." Jaune said confused.

"Jaune, I never went to combat school, I never had any sort of transcripts, and I never took any practical tests either" Ruby said. "Everything I know is self-taught."

"Yeah, but you can actually fight." Jaune said.

"Because I practiced." Ruby said. "I learned how to fight because I had to fight to survive. All you probably need is a little direction and a little extra time devoted to training."

"How?" Jaune asked.

"Well Pyrrha would probably be best to teach you cause of her style." Ruby said after some thought.

"I don't really want to bring everyone else in on the fact that I didn't train to get here." Jaune said apprehensively. Ruby paused for a moment, she wanted to help Jaune, but she couldn't do that while also trying to hunt down criminals. Unless…

' **Oh, no no no.'** her other half said, **'we have a hard enough time trying to maintain our cover without a newbie along.'**

' _But having backup could be useful in the long run.'_ Ruby retorted, _'and it's my responsibility to see to the training of my team'_

"Well, I could work with you, but it will be difficult and dangerous." Ruby said.

"Dangerous?" Jaune asked,

"I'll explain later, but if you want to do it, meet me in the courtyard at ten tonight." Ruby said, "bring your sword but ditch the armor."

"O-okaay?" Jaune was looking more and more unsure.

"You don't have to come." Ruby said, "but you need to get stronger, you can do it this way or find another, but I am offering." With that Ruby turned around and walked away.

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Jaune was in a full sprint, it was almost the time Ruby had told him and he didn't want to be late. When he reached the courtyard he began frantically looking for Ruby. He didn't see her, did he miss the time?

"I almost thought you weren't gonna come." Ruby said from somewhere above him. Jaune turned and saw Ruby perched precariously on top of the statue in the middle of the courtyard.

"Uh, yeah, I kinda lost track of time." Jaune said as he turned towards Ruby. Ruby seemed to freeze up and cover her face. "Ruby what's wrong?"

"What is that?!" Ruby said pointing at his jacket.

"What my hoodie?" Jaune said, "I've always had this." Ruby was trying to hold in a snicker.

"It's got a cute little bunny rabbit!" Ruby said, breaking out into laughter at the same time.

"It's Pumpkin Pete!" more laughter, "From the cereal!" even more laughter.

"So you got a bunny hoodie from some cereal!" said through her laughter as she hopped down from the statue.

"Yeah, it cost me like fifty box tops!" Jaune said.

"I don't know what those are." Ruby said, as she wiped her eyes, "thanks Jaune I needed a laugh today."

"Yeah, okay, no problem." Jaune said, slightly embarrassed still, "so ... are we going to go train?"

"Kinda." Ruby said as she turned towards the walkway that went down to vale, "I'm not much of a teacher so you'll be learning in the same way I learned, by doing."

"So we're going to fight?" Jaune asked.

"No, tonight we're going to do some investigating." Ruby said, "if somebody attacks us then we'll fight." They quickly went down the walkway and made their way into Vale. After making a quick stop at a convenience store to get Jaune something to disguise his identity, he settled on a baseball cap and sunglasses despite Ruby pointing out that they would be largely working at night, they continued down the darkening streets of Vale.

Throughout their walk they tried to appear nonshelaunt, appearing to window shop and take pictures at various places looking like tourists.

"So what exactly does what we're doing have to do with fighting?" Jaune asked after a little bit. Ruby turned to him.

"Right now I'm trying to teach you to blend in." Ruby said, "what I'm going to teach you is not simply fighting in the ring, but how to fight with your mind."

"With my mind?" Jaune asked.

"I told you I used to work as a PI, Right?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah…" Jaune responded.

"Well, that's how I'm going to teach you." Ruby said, "It's really the only thing I know, so you'll learn how to fight, how to spot clues, and how to look unassuming while doing it."

"Oh." Jaune said, "so do we have a case then?" Ruby smirked, pulled out her scroll and handed it to Jaune. When Jaune opened the scroll he was greeted by the very recognizable mugshot of a man with wild red hair.

"TORCH-!?" Jaune almost shouted but Ruby elbowed him in the ribs, hard. "We're going after Roman Torchwick?" Jaune said in a whisper.

"Yeah, I had a run-in with him when I first got to vale." Ruby said, "if the police haven't been able to catch someone like him yet, either they're incompetent or they're dirty." Ruby's statement made Jaune gulp nervously. "Either way he's still on the loose, and my code demands I go after him."

"Your code?" Jaune asked.

"I don't go after people who don't harm others." Ruby told him, "but that doesn't mean I only go after people who attack others" at Jaune's confused look Ruby elaborated, "someone who steals food from a small settlement is just as guilty of the deaths that will occur there as if they had just attacked and killed half the settlement outright."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense." Jaune said, "and I get that Roman is a big shot criminal, but what has he done? To your code I mean."

"Well, he has directly attacked people during his robberies." Ruby told him, "but another big thing is what he is stealing."

"What's that?" Jaune asked.

"Dust." Ruby said, "Torchwick has stolen so much from Vale that it's becoming difficult for many huntsmen and huntresses to afford what they need to arm themselves. What he is doing is even worse in my books because he is targeting the protectors."

"He's stolen that much dust?!" Jaune asked incredulously.

"Well, it's not just him," Ruby said, "that's actually our secondary objective. There's this terrorist group that seems to be stealing dust as well."

"Terrorists?!" Jaune said.

"Some group called the White Fang." Ruby said, "Faunus supremacists or something like that, my informant told me they were spotted at one of the robbery cites." Ruby paused and turned to look directly at Jaune, "Torchwick is our mission because he's gotten away from me once, but make no mistake terrorists with highly volatile materials are in a far better position to cause damage, if we see them we'll go after them first."

"Right, that makes sense, I guess." Jaune said. They continued on in silence for some time, until they heard what sounded like a crash coming from somewhere nearby.

"Come on!" Ruby said as she ran into a narrow alleyway and began leaping between the two buildings, kicking herself up higher as she went. Soon she was at the top of the building and running towards the sound. Jaune quickly looked for a way to follow her. Spying the fire exit on the side of the building Jaune ran and jumped to barely grab the ladder. After a few seconds of struggle he managed to lift himself up and began running up the fire escape. Once he reached the roof he found Ruby kneeling at the edge of the building.

"What took so long?" She asked, looking back at him.

"That thing you did." Jaune said while panting out of breath, "Yeah, I can't do that"

"Oh." Ruby said, "guess I'll have to teach you."

After she said this she motioned for Jaune to join her on the ledge. Down on the street below them stood a few dozen White Fang loading crates into several large trucks.

"Looks like it's the White Fang." Jaune said.

"Yeah, sure looks like it." Ruby said. No sooner had they said this than another figure emerged from the store.

"Could you mutts hurry it up please!" the familiar figure of a man in a white coat with a bowler hat called out. "I've got somewhere more important to be tonight so let's hussle it a bit." he clapped his hands.

"Wow, He's kind of a jerk, and a racist, and just kinda terrible." Jaune said.

"And actively working with the White Fang." Ruby said, she then stood up and drew her weapon, "let's end this." having said that Ruby leapt off the roof and dropped down to the street below.

"Yup, I'm certain of it now." Jaune mumbled to himself as he began looking for a way down, "She's crazy."

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Ruby hit the ground with a roll and a burst of rose petals as she leapt towards one of the nearest White Fang grunts. A semblance powered kick connected with the lookout's face before he had even realized what was happening. She didn't even pause as she moved on to the next grunt. There was no way her entry was silent so she had to strike hard and fast. The next grunt hadn't even been able to grasp the saber on his belt before Ruby's blade slid through his midsection. There was a crate of boxes in between her and the third grunt, who had actually managed to grab the handle of his pistol by now. Ruby ran vaulted over the collection of boxes to attack the grunt, she batted his pistol down, just as it barely cleared the grunts holster. Ruby then swung her sword leaving a gash from hip to shoulder in the grunts chest before batting him away with a roundhouse kick. At this point the world around Ruby began to speed up and the senses granted by her other half registered the percussive sound of firing pins and primers doing their work. In response Ruby threw herself backwards and under the cover of the boxes she had just vaulted over.

"WHAT DO YOU IDIOTS THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" Torchwick's voice called out over the gunfire.

"We're being attacked!" one of the grunts responded.

"I can see that, why are you shooting at volatile dust containers!" Torchwick responded.

"Ruby could smell that the dust in the containers she had hid behind were those of gravity dust, useful in airships and bullets, but ultimately pretty harmless if inadvertently activated. However the fact that the White Fang grunt had a spike in fear and seemed to be rethinking the pistol in his hands indicated that he couldn't smell the same thing. Ruby smirked and stood up.

"Yeah wouldn't want this whole block to go up in flames now would we?" Ruby said as she looked directly at Torchwick.

"Oh, it's you." Torchwick said.

"Long time no see," Ruby said with a wave, "Roaring Candlestick, right?" she inwardly patted herself on the back at the way Torchwick gritted his teeth.

"Isn't it past your bedtime Red?" Torchwick spat out.

Ruby pretended to look at her scroll, never taking her eyes off of the criminal or his terrorist henchmen.

"Well would you look at that." Ruby said, "guess I'll need to hurry, could you just give up quietly? It's a school night after all." Torchwick frowned and looked at the White Fang grunts who were just standing around brandishing weapons.

"What are you animals doing?" Torchwick sounded very annoyed, "go get the brat." at that the grunts snapped into action and charged Ruby from every angle, or they would have had it not been for a mess of blonde hair slamming into one of the grunts from behind. After the initial exchange Ruby and Jaune found themselves back to back with only a few grunts still standing around them.

"Sorry I'm late." Jaune said.

"Found the stairs?" Ruby asked.

"It's actually called a fire escape." Jaune countered

"Really why?" Ruby asked, before Jaune could answer however the two heard the sounds of two of the truck engines starting. From where Ruby was at, she could see Torchwick climbing into the lead truck. "Jaune these guys don't have an aura but don't go easy on them, they're going to try and hurt people and we need to catch those guys before they get away." With her heightened senses Ruby could hear Jaunes gulp as he processed that information. With barely a seconds pause Ruby snapped into action accelerating even as the world around her grew slower. Her first target was the grunt in front of her, his reaction time wasn't even enough to get his blade into a block position before Ruby's slid between his ribs. The man hadn't even hit the floor before Ruby was on the next. Ruby quickly and efficiently finished the remaining grunts, save one. When she slowed down and the world snapped back into time she saw Jaune standing like a statue as one of the White Fang grunts slid backwards off of his now bloodied blade. Ruby ran over to where her friend stood frozen.

"Jaune! Snap out of it!" Ruby called while grabbing him.

"R-Ruby?" Jaune asked with a dazed look and tone of voice, "H-He was just…"

Ruby grabbed Jaune and forced him to look at her rather than the man he had just killed.

"We'll talk about this later." Ruby said, "you can process this after we catch Torchwick." Ruby pointed towards the escaping trucks loaded with stolen dust and terrorists. Jaune nodded and moved to follow Ruby as she headed to the remaining truck.

' **Boy, is he going to be a handful.'** the dark voice spoke from within Ruby's mind, **'still I think he handled that better than your first time.'**

' _Yeah, he did,'_ Ruby thought as she climbed into the cab of the cargo truck.

"Wait," Jaune suddenly said as he started to sit in the other seat, "Do you have a driver's license?"

"A what now?" Ruby said as she threw the truck into gear and it lurched out of its parked position down the road after the other two trucks.

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Jaune was on the edge of his seat, metaphorically speaking. Ruby had thrown the truck in gear and taken off before he had even managed to get his seat belt on, an action he noticed, that Ruby had failed to take. Speaking of Ruby she was also on the edge of her seat, literally, she was just tall enough that she could push the pedal all the way down from that position.

"You do know how to drive these right?" Jaune asked nervously, what they were currently doing was illegal, but apparently not in a way that mattered to Ruby.

"Of course." Ruby said as she turned around a corner in a way that made Jaune worried the truck was going to tip, apparently speeding didn't faze Ruby either. "I've had to drive one before." Ruby finished.

"Wait, One?!" Jaune said. Ruby rounded another corner and then rolled down her window.

"We've got a straightaway, take over." Ruby said completely ignoring Jaune and then hoisting herself out of the window onto the outside of the truck. Jaune barely managed to get on the wheel and pedals in time to see Ruby climb onto the hood of the truck and pull her weapon out.

"GUN IT!" Ruby shouted and Jaune complied, sending their truck into the rear of the truck ahead of them. The impact was light since both of them were already traveling at near max speed, but the impact was enough to give Ruby a boost onto the dust laden White Fang truck. No sooner than Ruby's feet had touched down did the White Fang grunts climb out of the cab of the truck. What Jaune saw next could only have been described as a swashbuckling swordfight if it had taken place on a ship on the high seas rather than a truck hurtling down the streets of Vale. Ruby dodged, pairied, and blocked her opponents sabres even as she delivered retalitory strikes of her own. Jaune watched as Ruby used her sword in one hand to deliver swift fast strikes, and as she transitioned to two hands to block a particularly heavy blow or deliver a strike that was almost as heavy. One by one she worked her way through the three grunts that had risen to meet her, each falling off of the truck as she slayed them, Jaune tried not to think about that part. As the last grunt fell Ruby began to make her way towards the other trucks cab, until it suddenly swerved to avoid another car. Unfortunately the White Fang driver overcorrected and Jaune was forced to watch as the trucked tipped over and began to flip, with Ruby still on top. Jaune immediately slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the truck. He rushed over to where the White Fang truck had come to a stop. As he approached he could see the flames that indicated the powder keg of stolen dust was only moments away from going up. Around the truck were several bodies including that of his small red and black friend. When Jaune reached Ruby he could see she was bloody in several places and her eyes were closed, but she was still breathing. There was also some kind of fine white powder surrounding her, but Jaune just chalked that up to dust from the truck. Jaune immediately picked her up and ran to the car that the White Fang truck had narrowly avoided.

"Are you okay?" the raspy voice of the old man said as he began to step out of his car.

"Please I need to get to a hospital!" Jaune said while holding his unconscious friend. The elderly man nodded and jerked his head towards the unoccupied passenger side of his car. Jaune quickly climbed in as the man took off towards the nearest hospital.

"Don't die Ruby, please don't die." was all Jaune could say.

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 **So I recently had one of my reader very enthusiastically ask me to finish this chapter. So in response to their request, I sat at my computer for hours wondering how in the world I was going to finish this chapter. Eventually I gave up and went to talk with my writing buddy AKA Irlr Ori'kad, and talked it out with him. That's when the idea came to me, a car chase! So yeah, I still am writing this one and the others the only story I've given up on (at least until I figure out what I was doing with it) is A Family Business. So yeah enjoy the new chapter!**


	10. Chapter 9

"It's just I've never met anyone that flippant about their responsibilities. And don't even get me started on Nora." Blake poked at her breakfast while listening to the whining rich girl complain to the good natured celebrity across from her.

"Well, have you tried talking with them?" Pyrrha asked somewhat absentmindedly.

"Uggh, YES," Weiss said, "and they just, ignored me. Ignored ME" It was clear which part of that statement annoyed Weiss more. "Speak of the devil." She mumbled under her breath, no one else would have been able to hear it but Blake could pick it up easily.

"Hey guys!" a loud energetic voice called out as Nora approached the table. "Where's Ruby and Jaune?" by now the rest of team YRVS had joined them at the table, although as always their leader said nothing and looked at no one.

"We, don't know." Pyrrha said. Blake nodded.

"They went out last night…" Blake began to say.

"Oohh?" Nora said with a glint in her eye.

"And they didn't come back at all last night." Blake finished.

"Wow, they move fast." Nora said.

"Are you implying that some of our fellow students would be engaged in such, unscrupulous activities?" Weiss asked indignantly.

"Well there's only one reason a couple would be alone together for an entire night without telling anyone where they were going." Nora said.

"How are you so sure they're a couple?" Weiss asked.

Meanwhile Blake looked at her teammate. Pyrrha had been had been quieter and more subdued than normal.

"Hey are you alright?" Blake whispered to her teammate.

"Yes, I'm happy for them, but," Pyrrha said, also keeping her voice low, "I just wish I could find someone like that." Blake nodded. She understood being lonely, she also understood the opposite, having a significant other that tried to control your life, but she had no reason to bring that up here.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you will." Blake said. In the background, they could hear the others continuing their conversation.

"Is that even legal isn't Ruby like fifteen?" Weiss asked. Everyone missed how Yang stiffened a little at that.

"Jaune is only seventeen I believe," Ren said, "so yes still legal."

"Soooo," Nora began, getting Blake and Pyrrha's attention. "It's the weekend, do you guys have any plans?"

"What do you mean, this is the perfect opportunity to get ahead in our studies." Weiss said.

"Booooring." Was all Nora said in response.

"Well, I was planning on doing some reading." Blake said, not that she would tell them what kind of reading she was thinking of.

"I was just going to do some training." Pyrrha said.

"Wow you guys are more dull than Ren over here." Nora said, "Alright it is decided!" Nora proclaimed the last part loudly while standing on the bench and putting her foot on the table. "I will teach you guys how to have fun!" she turned towards Yang, "what do you say fearless leader?" Yang looked up at her then at the group.

"Just do what you want." Yang said as she grabbed her food and left the dining hall. The group seemed to pause as they watched her leave until Nora broke the trance.

"Sounds like permission to me!" She said.

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Jaune woke to someone shaking his shoulder He looked up to see the elderly man that had helped him get Ruby to the hospital. The man was holding a glass of water out to him.

"Thanks." Jaune said as he took the water.

"Don't mention it." The man said as he took a seat. "The names Rudy by the way, Rudy Greenhouse, though most folks 'round here just call me shopkeep."

"Jaune, Jaune Arc." Shopkeep nodded and looked at the young wolf faunus sleeping on the bed.

"Poor girl," he said. "How's she doing." After Shopkeep and Jaune had carried Ruby into the doctors, said doctors began asking them about both Ruby's injuries and the numerous scars that apparently littered Ruby's body. The only explanation Jaune had been able to give was that she was a huntress in training.

"The docs said that her Aura was recovering remarkably fast, so as long as she wakes up, she should be fine." Jaune said and Shopkeep nodded in understanding, "hey why are you going so far to help us."

"The little miss helped protect one of my businesses a few weeks ago." Shopkeep said, "and I'm not the kind to abandon someone so young." At that moment Ruby began stirring. "Hang on, I'll go get the doctors." Shopkeep finished before walking off.

"Hey Ruby how are you feeling?" Jaune asked.

"Uh, like I got hit by a truck." Ruby said while sitting up and looking around, "What happened?"

"Um, well…" Jaune said, trying to think of how to tell Ruby she was more or less right in her first statement. Fortunately he didn't need to as she looked at him and it seemed to click in her head.

"Oh, Right." Ruby said as she fell back onto the bed, "Torchwick?"

"He got away, getting you to help was more important." Jaune said. Ruby nodded in understanding thankfully. They sat there a few moments before Ruby got fully out of bed.

"Alright lets get out of here." Ruby said before noticing that she was in a hospital gown. "Where are my clothes at?"

"Over there." Jaune said before rethinking it, "wait Ruby the Doctors on his way, wait until he's checked you out." as Jaune was saying this he noticed through the slit in the back of the hospital gown a very large scar that stretched from just below Ruby's shoulder blades to the small of her back. "Rub-" At that moment the doctor came in.

"Ah, Ms. Rose please sit down so I can get a look at you." the doctor said. Ruby glared but reluctantly complied. What followed was the doctor examining Ruby and asking her various questions. After confirming that, yes this level of recovery was normal for Ruby and no she didn't feel anything unusual in her Aura, the doctor told Ruby that she would be fine to go.

"I'll handle the paperwork so you can just come down to the front desk when you are ready." the doctor said as he gathered his papers, "also you will likely have to walk with a limp, but with your level of recovery it should be gone within a day or so." after he finished speaking and left Ruby entered the bathroom and changed. She came back out dressed in her normal outfit.

"Are you ready to go?" She asked.

"Yeah." Jaune said, "where we going next?"

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Pyrrha had to admit, Nora's Idea to do an all girls shopping trip, sans their team leaders, was a rather good one. She even managed to convince Weiss by pointing out several things that the heiress could use for school. She might be hyperactive but Nora was no idiot. The shopping trip had been going well and all the girls seemed to be getting closer to each other. As they were about to leave the clothing shop they were currently in, Nora who was leading the group, abruptly stopped at the entrance. She was looking out the door to one side. The reason why became apparent to the girls when they too peeked out the shop's door. Coming down the street was a familiar blonde boy and faunus girl shrouded in red and black.

"Why are we stopping like this?" Weiss asked. At Weiss's question Nora turned around, and Pyrrha could swear she saw stars in the girls eyes.

"They look like they're headed to this store." Blake said, she was still looking at Jaune and Ruby.

"Alright everybody let's hide and see what they are doing." Nora said before dragging Weiss into a hiding spot amongst the clothes. Blake and Pyrrha also quickly hid on the other side of the door. Then Ruby and Jaune entered the store.

"Of course that wasn't…" Ruby said before suddenly pausing and looking around. For a second Pyrrha thought they had been caught when Ruby shook her head and kept walking, or rather limping awkwardly.

"Of course that wasn't my first time." Ruby continued talking to Jaune. "It just hurt a little more than I wanted."

"I'm sorry," Jaune said back, "are you sure…"

"Jaune i'm fine, it was a rather large…" the group couldn't hear Ruby as she and Jaune rounded a corner towards the back of the store.

"Well she's very forward." Blake said after a moment. This felt kinda wrong to Pyrrha, sure she was curious about her team leader and partner, but she felt like spying on them like this would be wrong.

"Whatever they are doing I don't care." Weiss said, "If they wish to engage in such activities it is none of our business, we should continue our shopping trip."

"I actually agree with Weiss" Pyrrha said, "we should give them their privacy."

"Awwww." Nora said, "Spoilsport." Nora then turned to Blake, "what about you?" Blake gave a little cough into her hand.

"We should probably give them their privacy." Blake said.

"You guys are no fun." Nora said, "alright next store on our list is…"

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"You still haven't told me where we're going." Jaune said.

"Right," Ruby said, she was currently experiencing a major headache, likely due to her other half having retreated as far as it could go. He had done this so that Ruby's Aura would have as little resistance in healing her as possible. As a result everything seemed dimmer to her senses and she was having a little more trouble thinking. "we're going to get you some equipment to help you blend in on our investigations."

"Oh, ok." Jaune said.

Ruby could still feel the presence of her other half but it's lack of activity was making things a little difficult for Ruby. Not only was her hearing dulled slightly but the lack of snide comments at every human's actions was something Ruby was not used to. Everything felt, just, too quiet.

"Sooo…" Jaune began, Ruby couldn't really feel his emotions at the moment, but if the look on his face said anything, he felt awkward. "Was that the first time you've crashed like that?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow. That most certainly had to be an awkward question. She directed them into the store before beginning to answer.

"Of course that wasn't…" Ruby paused, something was off. She turned around, without her hyper enhanced senses the shadowed areas were not clear to her, she couldn't hear or smell anything out of the ordinary. Nevertheless Ruby felt as though someone was watching her. Eventually she decided that there was nothing she could do until she had recovered anyways, so she turned around and finished answering Jaune's question. "Of course that wasn't my first time, it just hurt a little more than I wanted."

"I'm sorry." Jaune apologized again, he seemed to think that it was through some fault of his that the White Fang driver had been careless. "Are you sure…"

"Jaune." Ruby said, knowing she had to nip this in the bud if they were going to work together, "I'm fine, It was a rather large mistake, but it wasn't yours." Strangely she felt the eyes following her disappear.

' _No Ruby focus'_ Ruby scolded herself in place of her dormant companion "If anything the fault was mine, I didn't take into account the civilian traffic that may or may not exist in the city." Ruby then saw an old Vacuean style brown leather duster on a rack behind Jaune. It was about the right size and would cover his weapon when sheathed. "Perfect." Ruby said.

"Huh?" Jaune asked confused at the sudden shift of gears.

"Jaune try this on!" Ruby said as she grabbed the duster and handed it to him. He raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" he asked, looking like Ruby had just suggested he dress up in ballerina costume.

"What, it's a good style, popular in the reaches and it has the benefit of being a minor form of armor as well as hiding your weapon from unwanted eyes." Ruby listed off the benefits.

"It looks like the coat Detective Doctor wears!" Jaune said.

"Who?" Ruby asked.

"Detective Doctor." Jaune said, "You know from the Sunday morning cartoon."

' _Is he joking with me?'_ Ruby thought, though looking at Jaune's face told her it was not so, _'he's serious right now.'_

"You've got to be kidding me." Ruby said, "Jaune I'm sure it doesn't matter, just try it on, I'm sure it will be fine."

"Alright but if I look like an idiot, it's your fault." Jaune said. He then grabbed the Duster and put it on. Ruby could immediately tell that it was a good look on him, and sure enough it hid Crocea Mors very well.

"I look stupid don't I?" Jaune said.

"What? No!" Ruby said, "It looks really good on you, c'mon take a look" Ruby dragged Jaune over to a nearby mirror. After looking for a minute Jaune spoke up.

"I guess it doesn't look bad."

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"So wait If Doctor Detective is so good…" Ruby asked.

"No Doctor Detective is the main villain, Detective Doctor is the main character." Jaune corrected.

"This show has the stupidest names." Ruby mumbled just loud enough for Jaune to hear.

"Hey!" Jaune said, "this show was a huge part of my childhood!"

"So if Detective Doctor is so good how come he didn't realise that the Shtabuum guy was the one who killed Professor Officer?"

"Well he…" Jaune began before stopping in his tracks, "Wait how do you know who killed Professor Officer? The show hasn't even gotten that far yet!"

"C'mon, Shtabuum clearly didn't like Professor Officer and was missing for a while after he was killed." Ruby said, "besides the guys name is Isaac William Shtabuum."

"So?" Jaune asked.

"As always the stupid names continue," Ruby said, "Isaac William Shtabuum, I. Will. Shtabuum. His murder is in his name."

"That can't be right Isaac is his brother in law." Jaune said.

"Then I guess we'll just have to find out, won't we?" Ruby said before looking at the store they were passing in front of, "besides this is our last stop for the night." Jaune looked at the shop for a second.

"Ruby this is a weapon's shop," he said, "I'm not getting rid of Crocea Mors."

"I'm not asking you too," Ruby said, "But you should have a ranged option." Ruby then grabbed Jaune and dragged him into the store. After searching for a while Jaune eventually settled on a revolver Ruby suggested, then they went to the shooting range in back of the store.

"It's easy Jaune," Ruby told him, "Just use both hands to start with, look through these back sights, and focus on the front sight, then just put it on the target and slowly squee…"

 **BANG!**

"I said slowly squeeze!" Ruby said covering her ears as they rang profusely. At least her companion had awakened and returned her enhanced senses, just at the worst possible time. Ruby could see Jaune saying that he was sorry and asking if she was okay, though she couldn't hear him say it at the moment.

"I'm fine, it's just a small space and I wasn't ready for the sound." Ruby said, "I'll be fine in a minute." After said minute Ruby heard the ringing subside and, just in case, she took the earplugs and blocked up both her human and canine ears. "Okay, now you can shoot."

In response Jaune turned and fired at the target again.

"You're still jerking on the trigger, that'll throw off your aim." Ruby said before launching into full training mode. After a few hours of training Jaune seemed to be getting the hang of how to shoot a gun. It was also getting later in the day, so Ruby decided to call it a day and the two of them went back to Beacon. They arrived back at Beacon just in time for dinner. Their table was oddly quiet for them, and Ruby could feel a myriad of wildly varying emotions from both her team and her sister's team but nobody seemed to want to comment. Eventually both teams finished and returned to their rooms for the night.

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 **A/N another one down! Not much action this chapter, though we do have some pretty fun misunderstandings beginning. Also anyone who got the "Detective Doctor" reference, you know some fine comedy. As always I hope you enjoy this chapter.**


	11. Chapter 10

Something woke Ruby up, she immediately sat up, weapon in hand, and scanned the room. Everything was set in the slight red tinge that told Ruby it was pitch black in their room right now. Blake was similarly sitting up in her bed and looking around, though she didn't have her weapon with her.

"They probably aren't up right now." The voice was little more than a whisper on the other side of the door to her team's room, but Ruby heard it clearly. Cautiously Ruby got out of bed and moved to the door, weapon in hand. She could sense someone on the other side, their Aura seemed familiar but there was an added level of exhaustion and sadness that prevented Ruby from picking out who it was. What Ruby could tell was that the figure she was sensing was female, but the voice she heard was obviously a male. Ruby reached the door and opened it slowly.

"Yes?" she asked. On the other side stood Ren and Nora from team YRVS.

"Hello, Ms. Ruby." Ren said.

"Oh. My. Word. your ears are so cute!" Nora said, all semblance of exhaustion and sadness dropping away from her Aura. She was then nugged by Ren and sheepishly said "Sorry."

"What's going on?" Ruby asked, her ears flicked as she heard the sound of arguing voices from the other side of team YRVS door. "Are they?"

"Yeah." Ren answered, "they argue almost everyday, but they normally are done by now, it just got to where Nora and I couldn't sleep." Ruby nodded and took notice of the pillows and blankets bundled under the duos arms.

"Well it won't be comfortable but you're welcome." Ruby said as she opened the door fully and stepped aside, "we were already asleep so don't make too much noise."

"Thank you we won't" Ren said.

"Thanks Ruby." Nora said. They both moved into the room and set up their bedding in a corner. Ruby looked back at YRVS door.

' _This has to stop'_ Ruby thought as she shut her dorm room door and went back to bed.

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The next morning everybody gets up and goes about getting ready for their day, Ren and Nora head back to their dorm room to get ready. While they finish getting ready and take off towards the chow hall for breakfast Ruby thinks back to the night before and how to get Yang and Weiss to stop fighting. As she is thinking about how to handle the situation with her sister team she loaded up her tray with food and makes her way towards the table team RANB and YRVS usually sit at. So preoccupied with her thoughts was Ruby that she missed an Aura nearby giving off malicious intent. What Ruby did notice however was when a hand coiled around her tail and pulled. The sudden loss of forward momentum caused Ruby to trip and fall forward, the food on her tray went everywhere and Ruby fell on her face. As Ruby was getting up the hand on her tail, which had not moved, pulled again, hard. Ruby could hear laughter and people talking about her being a "freak" she was already reaching for her weapon when she heard a loud *thwack* sound. The hand on her tail released almost at the same instant. Ruby quickly pulled herself up and looked around at the situation. The tail puller appeared to be another student named Cardin Winchester, Ruby knew he was in her class but after watching his first fight in combat class had decided he wasn't a threat. Out of the corner of Ruby's eye she could see Jaune, fist still extended and an angry determined look on his face, an expression Ruby had never seen him make.

"What the Hell!" Cardin shouted while reaching for his nose as if feeling for blood. Ruby could see Cardin's team get up and start to move towards them. At the same time she felt at least four more presences come up behind her. Cardin's team stopped moving as Pyrrha, Blake, Ren and Nora all moved to block them. Cardin looked over the standoff, his face red with anger, but he looked at Pyrrha and every other person standing against him and his team, then he spotted the collapsed weapon in Ruby's hand. Realizing that he was outnumbered and outgunned, Cardin called his team off and the four of them left the cafeteria.

"Despicable." Pyrrha said as they left, "Are you alright Ruby?" Ruby clenched her weapon as she tried to calm down her other half, who at this point had lost its ability to form coherent words and was just snarling and growling for vengeance. Eventually Ruby's appeals to the beasts age and wisdom won out and her other half calmed down, though it was still quiet after it did so.

"Y-yeah, that just really kinda hurt, no one has ever done that to me before." Ruby answered after her inner conflict concluded, to Ruby's surprise however the pain in her tail did not subside or dull, "Actually it still hurts, like allot." Ruby said. Blake suddenly got a very concerned look on her face and came over towards Ruby.

"Ruby can I have a look at it?" she asked, to which Ruby hesitantly nodded. When Blake touched Ruby's tail a sharp jolt of pain lanced through it again causing Ruby to yelp and jump back. Blake turned to the others, "Ruby needs to go see the nurse, her tail might have gotten broken or dislocated."

Before anyone had a chance to respond to that statement Blake was dragging Ruby by the wrist towards the Beacon infirmary. As much as Ruby wanted to complain about being dragged around the pain in her tail gave her something else to think about.

"You need to remember to keep your Aura up, and let us know when it feels weak." Blake said to Ruby as they wound through hallways, "you're in the city now, people aren't going to be as Faunus friendly as they are out in the reaches." Ruby winced and nodded, Blake was not wrong and Ruby actually did keep her Aura up most of the time, but her tail was one of the few places her Aura didn't or rather couldn't cover.

Eventually they burst through a door labelled with a red cross and found a woman in her mid-thirties sitting behind a desk wearing a lab coat. Even through the pain she was experiencing she could feel the concern radiate off of the woman as she got up and helped Blake move Ruby towards a bed, which Ruby absentmindedly sat down on. Another jolt of pain shot through Ruby and caused her to miss what the nurse had said.

"What?" Ruby asked as she shook her head to clear it unsuccessfully.

"I asked where it hurts." The woman said.

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Ozpin sighed as he looked at the message he had just received from Professor Carmen Vera, the third year's medical course teacher and the head of the school infirmary staff. Normally altercations and disputes between students would fall under Glynda's duties, however when such altercations resulted in serious injury to one or more of the parties involved, it became his problem. As such right now the elevator was riding up with team CRDL and the AN of team RANB, as well as team YRVS who witnessed the incident. Apparently Cardin Winchester had decided, for some reason to pull on the tail of Ruby Rose, which resulted in three vertebrae being dislocated in the poor girls tail. It was somewhat mild compared to most of the injuries that got people sent to his office, but the fact that it occurred outside of any designated training area and was apparently an unprovoked attack brought it to his attention. There was another issue in this situation that also demanded his attention. Ruby Rose was not an ordinary student, and not just because of her eyes. She was the Red Ranger, a vigilante from the reaches, one who enforced justice at the point of a sword. With this knowledge Ozpin sent his reply to professor Vera requesting Ruby to come to his office as soon as she was cleared from the infirmary. As soon as he had pressed send he heard his elevator ding and the doors opened revealing the three teams, standoff in progress.

"Ah there you all are, come in, have a seat." Ozpin said diffusing anything that was about to happen. The ten students entered his office and sat down at the seats he had set up earlier. "Now I understand there was a bit of a scuffle in the cafeteria earlier today." Ozpin said. To his surprise it was Cardin that spoke up first.

"Yeah this bas-" Ozpin interrupted him with an *ahem* "This idiot attacked me and punched me in the face." Ozpin raised an eyebrow, he hadn't heard about this happening.

"I see is this true Mister Arc?" Ozpin asked.

"Yes sir it is." Jaune answered boldly, defiantly. It cheered Ozpin's heart to see how much the boy had grown since initiation and, if Ozpin's guess was correct, for the sake of his team.

"But-!" Nora cried out, though Ozpin held up a hand to stop her.

"And was this before or after Mister Winchester pulled on Miss Rose's tail?"

"After" Pyrrha answered instantly and matter of factly. All of team YRVS nodded along.

"We were just playing around, harmless teasing." Cardin answered quickly. He could see that Jaune, Pyrrha, and Nora were all glaring at the boy. Ozpin sighed and got up from behind his desk and walked around to the front and leaned on it.

"Here at Beacon, we have non-involvement policy when it comes to bullying," Ozpin began, "You are all warriors and we expect you to be able to take care of your own problems, so long as you do not cause harm to others in the process." Ozpin paused to take a sip of his coffee, "therefore I don't care that Mister Arc saw fit to punch you Mister Winchester, however we do intervene if an altercation leads to a serious injury."

"Is Ruby okay?" Pyrrha interrupted him.

"Your team leader will be fine, she narrowly avoided breaking any bones," Ozpin said before turning back to Cardin, "she has three dislocated vertebrae however, and it will prevent her from participating in combat class for a month, therefore making it a serious injury."

"But-!" Cardin began to speak however Ozpin cut him off.

"No buts Mister Winchester!" Ozpin said, "we bring students here to train to kill Grimm, by injuring Miss Rose you have prevented her from doing that very thing for a month. What possessed you to act in such a way?"

"If she's so weak that she got injured by that then why is she here?!" Cardin shouted back.

"Victory does not always come in strength, Mister Winchester," Ozpin said softly, "Miss Rose is someone who is here merely to gain her official license, she is already well known in the reaches and has probably saved as many people from Grimm as some of the teachers here." He looked Cardin right in the eye. "You will be under detention for the remainder of your stay here at Beacon, if you step out of line you will be expelled if you harm another student you will be held accountable with the appropriate charge, and I suggest you avoid Miss Rose until I have had a chance to speak with her." Ozpin informed him.

"That's ridiculous!" Cardin shouted, "All I did was pull on the mutt's tail!" he huffed, "the freak shouldn't even be here."

"Mister Winchester, Racism is very unbecoming of a huntsman in training." Ozpin spoke, "Part of this punishment is for your sake." Ozpin elaborated when he got several questioning stares. "As I said before, Ms. Rose is here under special circumstances, in the reaches she is known by a different name, as a slayer of Grimm… and those who willfully harm the innocent." Ozpin looked at Cardin there wasn't any dawning of realization on his face, truly disappointing, "as you just did to her in the cafeteria Mr. Winchester. She has a code, which you have just violated, if I were not to punish you satisfactorily she would take it upon herself to 'right this wrong'"

"So?" Cardin said, "if the pipsqueak wants to fight me…"

"She wouldn't fight you Mr. Winchester." Ozpin interrupted, "she would kill you." Cardin's face paled for the first time since coming into Ozpin's office.

"Y-You wouldn't allow that here, would you?" one of his teammates asked.

"Ms. Rose is by her very nature a law unto herself." Ozpin said, "She would do what she feels is right and would leave before anyone could contest such actions."

"H-How do you know that?" this time it was Weiss who asked.

"Because she has done it before, out in the reaches." Ozpin said.

"YOU LET SOMEONE WHO KILLS PEOPLE INTO BEACON?!" Weiss was incredulous.

"She is hardly the first student who has." Ozpin said, you're own team leader has dealt lethally with people before." Weiss turned to look at Yang who was fiddling around with her nails.

"What?" Yang shrugged, "they had it coming and I was justified."

"Indeed Ms. Rose just happens to have a slightly higher count than anybody we've gotten before." Cardin and his team paled even further, surpassing the limits of how white a person could get, meanwhile Yang actually perked up in interest.

"Really? Wow." she said.

"Mr. Winchest you will submit to the punishment directed towards you or Ms. Rose will deliver her own judgment" Ozpin said, the boy nodded slowly, "and I sincerely hope you will learn that your strength does not allow you to do whatever you want."

With that Ozpin motioned for the teams to leave.

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Ruby restrained a growl at the speed of the elevator. It had taken almost an hour for Professor Vera to figure out a dosage of painkillers that would be remotely effective on Ruby, due to her Aura and its effects on her she would have to take the dosage once every hour, even then it didn't remove the pain, only took the edge off. Her high resistance to drugs had always served her well in the past, but now it seemed that very advantage was betraying her.

"Ruby you shouldn't fiddle with your sling." Blake said. Ruby looked down and sure enough she had been messing with the belt like sling that currently held her tail against her body in a way that it wouldn't hit anything while it healed. Ruby mumbled an apology and sought something to distract her from the pain. She eventually landed on the predicament befalling her sister team.

' _Heh, sister team'_ Ruby chuckled internally, _'Y'see it's funny because it's led by my litteral sister and...'_

' **Again this thing you call humor evades me.'** her other half cut her off.

' _What are you talking about you laugh all the time?'_ Ruby thought quizzically,

' **When things are actually funny'** the voice said, **'like kids getting thrown off a cliff or people getting hurt'**

' _Ah. right, I guess Grimm can only have a morbid sense of humor'_ Ruby thought, then she noticed her missed opportunity, _'oh wait let me retry that one I guess Grimm can only have…'_

' **If you say Grimm sense of humor I will make your hair grow out to your ankles overnight'** Ruby shuddered at the thought.

' _No! It's already a pain that it grows out as quickly as it does, don't help it'_ Ruby protested. She could feel a level of smug satisfaction coming from her other half and realized that he had won this round.

"Ruby are you okay?" Blake asked from beside her.

"Uh, yeah, why?" Ruby answered quickly.

"You were making all sorts of weird faces." Blake told her, "Your not still in pain are you?"

"N-no! Well kinda yes, but it's a lot better than before!" Ruby said, "I was just thinking is all."

"About what?" Blake asked.

"Things." before Blake could press further the door to the elevator dinged and slid open.

Ms. Rose, Ms. Belladonna" Ozpin said as he motioned to seats across from him. Ruby gingerly sat down in her seat, being careful to avoid aggravating her injured tail.

"How are you feeling?" Ozpin asked.

"Not great." Ruby answered.

"I see and I'm sorry about that. I never imagined Mr. Winchester would exercise enough force to break through Aura and cause an injury like that." OZpin said. Ruby flinched internally, Cardin hadn't but her tail, like her ears, was not protected in any way by her Aura, after all they were completely Grimm appendages.

"My Aura's pretty weak so it probably didn't take much." Ruby said without technically lying, her Aura was very weak, another downside to having a Grimm reside inside of you, and unrelated to that it didn't take much effort for Cardin to cause that kind of damage.

"Even still." Ozpin said, "He has been punished for his actions and will be held on probation for the rest of his time at Beacon."

"HE'S STILL GOING TO BE HERE!" Blake was livid.

"Ms. Belladonna please calm down." Ozpin said, "the hope is that he will learn from this situation and become a model huntsman, he has been warned that if he steps out of line even once he will be expelled."

"What do you want Professor?" Ruby spoke up, causing Blake to look at Ruby quizzically.

"I want your assurances that the 'Red Ranger' will not strike here at Beacon. Ruby could feel the confusion radiating off of Blake, but she was honestly surprised nobody else had put two and two together.

"I will abide by the agreement we made when I came to Beacon," Ruby said, "as long as you enforce justice I will refrain from doing so." Blake's emotions switched from curiosity to surprise, then to awe, then to fear, and back to curiosity in the span of seconds.

"Good that's what I want to hear." Ozpin said, "unfortunately I will have to deliver news that I doubt you'll want to hear."

"I'm suspended from classes aren't I?" Ruby said, the resignation in Ozpin's Aura was all the answer she needed.

"Of a sort," Ozpin began, "you will be asked to keep up in your academic classes, but you will be unable to participate in combat class until your tail has healed." Ruby nodded unfortunate but not unforeseen.

"Is there anything else Professor?" Ruby finally asked.

"No you are free to go." Ozpin said and the two huntresses in training turned to walk out, "Oh, do enjoy your field trip tomorrow."

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 **A/N ahhh, another chapter finally done. I must apologize as my proofreader/writing buddy has begun his wonderful (terrifying) journey through College (assignment hell) and was not able to proofread this chapter before I published it. For those of you who don't know my brother Irlr Ori'kad is in many ways my writing partner. When I'm writing I'll bounce ideas off of him and I'll have him read my chapters to ensure that they feel and sound right. So if this chapter doesn't seem like my normal quality that would be why. Anyways I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**


	12. Chapter 12

The bullhead ride to the forest of forever fall was rather smooth and calm. Pyrrha was enjoying the view outside the side bay doors, which were currently open.

"Sooo…" Pyrrha heard Blake begin, which was curious because Blake was normally rather blunt about things, "The Red Ranger huh?"

' _Who?'_ Pyrrha thought.

"Yes I hear they're a big deal out in the reaches." Ruby said without looking up from her notebook and scroll.

"I'll say." Jaune said.

"Who's this Red Ranger?" Pyrrha asked, totally at a loss for what they were talking about. She saw Blake open her mouth to say something before Nora from team YRVS started talking.

"She's only the most fearsome Huntress to have ever roamed the reaches of Vale!" Nora said excitedly,

"I'm surprised you haven't heard of her." Jaune said, "I mean even I know about her"

"Who is she?" Weiss asked.

"She's a huntress who is well known throughout the reaches," Jaune said, "She's also known for being, zealous, about justice."

"She tends to deal lethally with anyone she deems as a threat to people in the reaches." Ren clarified, "Some believe that her method for dealing with criminals makes her no better than them, but many villages in the reaches hail her as a hero."

"They say she's really fearsome and fights like a wild animal!" Nora said, "Like she was raised by wolves."

"That is unlikely." Ren said, "there are some who don't believe she even really exist though, she's never been caught on any cameras within a city, and nobody who claims to have met her seems willing to describe her, as well as many of the stories about her sound rather fictitious."

"Have any of you met this huntress?" Pyrrha asked being intrigued. Everybody shook their heads, except for Blake and Ruby, who was still engrossed in her notes. "Blake?" Blake paused a moment before she shook her head.

"I never met her but I know someone who did, so she's not a myth." Blake answered.

"Ruby?" Pyrrha asked. Ruby immediately perked her head up and looked around. Seeing that everyone was looking at her Ruby sighed.

"I may know who she is." Ruby said.

"Whoa! Really!?" Jaune said, surprised.

"I told you I worked as an investigator in the reaches, right?" Ruby said, "I'm good at what I do."

"So? Who is she!?" Nora asked excitedly.

"A private person who only wishes to protect people from monsters, no matter what skin they wear." Ruby answered, "There's a reason that anybody she's helped is unwilling to describe her." The rest of the ride to forever fall was fairly silent.

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As she stepped off the bullhead Yang took notice of how Ren and Nora seemed to drift over with team RANB. She didn't know when they had become such great friends with the team but at least it was one less problem she had to deal with. She was just about to walk away when she felt an arm grab hers. She looked over to see that both her and Weiss had been grabbed by team RANB's leader.

"Let's go collect the sap together." she said, it was phrased like a suggestion, but the tone of voice brokered no argument. It was the same tone that Yang's late mother had used on her whenever she was in trouble, eerily so. Wordlessly she and Weiss were dragged along until they were well out of earshot of their respective teams.

"What the heck is wrong with you two?!" Ruby said as she spun around to face them.

"Excuse me!" Weiss said indignantly.

"You two have been alternating between screaming at each other or ignoring the others existence since school started and it's been dragging your team down." Ruby answered curtly, "So? What's the problem?" she crossed her arms and waited for the two to answer. Yang had it with this, she didn't care about Weiss, or her team, she just wanted to get through Beacon so she could set out on her search for her sister.

"Why do you care?" Yang asked.

"Because I do, I need no further reason than that." Ruby said, before she softened her voice, "You're training to be the protectors of the world, what could possibly be more important than working towards that goal?" It took a second but it seems that Weiss was the one who answered first.

"I don't think that a KILLER should be a huntress." Weiss said. Ruby paused, Yang wasn't sure if it was because she was hurt or if she was trying to calm her temper down.

"Weiss what would you do if someone was trying to kill you?" Ruby asked,

"Well, I'd disarm-" Weiss began.

"You're dead." Ruby interrupted.

"Wha-?" Weiss was flabbergasted and obviously not used to being interrupted.

"Weiss, I have a speed semblance," Ruby said, "even then I'm often not able to disarm somebody, It's not as easy as martial arts instructors make it seem, and many people can fight without their weapon. Sometimes the only way to stop bad people from doing bad things is to kill them."

While Weiss seemed to be considering what Ruby said, Ruby turned towards Yang.

"Yang, why haven't you been involved in your team?" Ruby asked.

"Listen, I'm not here to get along with anyone," Yang said, "I'm just here to get my huntress license and begin my grand adventure."

"Aren't a large part of grand adventures the people you meet along the way?" Ruby asked, "isn't that what all those children stories say?" Yang winced remembering the stories she used to read to her younger sister.

"Making connections hurts too much if your friends are just going to leave." Yang said.

"Doesn't it hurt worse to never make connections?" Ruby pressed further, "Besides you don't have a choice."

"What do you mean by that?" Yang asked.

"You're a team leader now Yang," Ruby answered, "you already have those connections, people who rely on you whether you want it or not."

"Yeah well maybe people shouldn't rely on me," Yang answered, "They tend to end up dead."

"Yang." was all Ruby said softly before she turned and started talking to the two of them, "look you two are teamates, partners even, you will have to work together and get along. I mean we're only in our first couple months of Beacon and it will be four years of work. Your constant fighting has already caused your teams grades in pretty much every class to drop and its troubling your teammates."

Yang and Weiss shared a look, _'What is she talking about?'_

"Did either of you even bother to wonder where they were last night? Or the night before?" Ruby asked. Yang thought back, Ren and Nora had left at some point during her and Weiss's argument two nights ago, and last night they hadn't even come to the room. "They were in our room trying to get some sleep because they can't get it in yours."

Weiss looked guilty.

"Look I'm not saying you two have to particularly like each other, or become a perfect leader overnight," Ruby said, "but just give it a shot please?" after she finished speaking she grabbed the empty jar she had brought along and began filling it at a nearby tree. After her little talk Weiss and Yang looked at each other shrugged and began filling up their own jars. They continued in silence for some time, probably an attempt by Ruby to let them think on what she had said. This continued until one of Cardin's team ran into the clearing yelling "help!" at the top of his lungs. Ruby was up first, in fact she was standing in front of Cardin's team member asking what was wrong in a flash of rose petals.

"There's a big Grimm that I've never seen before!" the boy cried, "Dove and Russel are in trouble!" Ruby had her weapon out and had already sprinted deeper into the forest by the time that Yang and Weiss had even managed to gather their weapons. They followed the trail of rose petals to find where the, still very much injured, Faunus girl had run. Along the way Yang began to notice that there was a rubber line strung between two trees and several jars full of extra sap sitting next to the strange contraption. A quick look back confirmed for Yang that the crude device had indeed been aimed at the clearing they had just left. Yang could already guess at who their target had been, and she was currently running at Mach 3 to save those who would have been her tormentors. Yang set that thought off to the side for now and readied Ember Obitum for whatever fight lay ahead of her. Upon entering the clearing Yang was met with the sight of a red blur dashing around a very large Grimm sporting large claws and horns on its head, which was vaguely bull-like. Yang remembered Qrow mentioning a Grimm similar, it was called a Wendigo and was slightly sturdier than an Ursa Major, and almost as fast as a beowolf. In other words, not an easy fight. She could see that Ruby had already managed to land several shallow cuts on the beasts legs but nothing deep enough or high enough to do much real damage. Yang looked over to the side where the other members of CRDL were lying in a clearing, they appeared to have been injured but how badly Yang couldn't tell. She looked over to Weiss to see the girl readying her weapon to jump in the fight.

"Schnee, secure the wounded!" Yang shouted, it was the first order she had ever given as team leader, and she didn't know why she gave it. Weiss paused then looked over to where the injured boys were, she nodded and ran towards them. Meanwhile Yang hefted Ember Obitum and in a burst of flames jetted into the fray with the Wendigo. The Wendigo appeared to be quickly learning the pattern of the red blur slashing at its legs as it sped by. Yang arrived just in time to block a downward swipe that would have connected with said red blur.

"You're injured! What the heck do you think your doing?!" Yang hissed to the girl that had paused to take a breath beneath her.

"Everything I can." Ruby answered. "This is a Wendigo, their belly armor is a little thicker than most other Grimm, back armor is weaker." now that was something that Qrow hadn't taught Yang.

"Got it." Yang answered. Ruby nodded then returned to being a blur of rose petals, while Yang redirected the Wendigo's strike to land next to her. For the next while Ruby continued to distract the Wendigo while Yang used the length of her burning scythe to lay heavy deep gashes into the almost unreachable back of the ganly Grimm. Yang and Ruby began to follow the pattern of Yang would strike it and fall back Ruby would rush in and get it's attention before leaping out again as Yang moved to strike. It worked for a couple minutes, until Ruby lost her balance on her turn and fell. Yang quickly moved in and took the hit the Wendigo aimed at the smaller huntress. Her Aura took the hit and fed it into her semblance, allowing her to force the Wendigo off of her and sending it off balance. At that moment Weiss returned from securing the injured boys.

"Schnee immobilize it!" Yang shouted, Weiss nodded, and rushed past the pair. With a flourish of her rapier ice formed on the ground which then sprouted up to catch the Wendigo's limbs in solid ice. Yang turned to Ruby who was just getting up from where she fell.

"Red!" Yang didn't even have to explain anything further about her plan. Ruby seemed to move intuitively, like she could read minds. Ruby quickly stepped on the head of Yang's scythe just as Yang swung and sent the smaller girl flying above the Wendigo. Once she was over the Wendigo's head she twisted in midair and began to fall towards the creature, but she missed. Fortunately Ruby seemed to notice this midfall and reached out grabbing one of the Wendigo's horns, swinging around it and landing on the back of the Wendigo's neck. She then drew her sword and stabbed in right into the base of the Grimms spinal column. The grimm fell as Ruby leapt off of it, the moment it hit the ground Yang brought Ember Obitum in it's greatsword form down on its neck. The semblance enhanced blow beheaded the Grimm.

"Students! Are you all right?!" Mrs. Goodwitch called as she burst into the clearing, eyes drifting from the rapidly disintegrating Grimm, to the trio of slightly battered girls, to the injured boys hidden behind an ice wall.

"We're all right just need a minute." Ruby said as she sat down, a little too hard if the wince on her face was any indication.

Mrs. Goodwitch looked back at the dead Wendigo and muttered "Another one, what is going on?" Meanwhile Yang looked over at the red girl next to her, hood still perfectly perched to hide her face, it would have been impressive if it was intentional, but Yang didn't get the sense that she was that kind of person. Yang's drift moved from Ruby to Weiss.

' _Maybe, maybe I should try_ ' Yang thought, ' _maybe having friends could help me find her. Maybe._ '

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Jaune shuffled nervously as he waited outside an alley for Ruby to finish whatever she was doing.

"Hey." Jaune was rather pleased that he managed to keep a scream, a very masculine scream from escaping him as the girl in question suddenly appeared next to him.

"You sure we should be out here with, you know?" Jaune asked. Ruby tilted her head and looked at him.

"If I gave up every time I got hurt I would've died a long time ago." Ruby said, "Besides it actually helped with my side of the investigation."

"Oh?" Jaune said,

"Yeah, didn't even have to lie about it, the White Fang are very simpathetic to Faunus who get hurt by discrimination." Ruby answered. Jaune nodded.

"Makes sense, what did you find?" he asked.

"One: these heists are part of a bigger scheme, much bigger." She answered, "Two: they've got a pretty big heist planned for the end of next month. How about you?"

"Hmm, I think I might have a clue on the second one." Jaune said.

"Yeah?" Ruby asked.

"Most of the dust companies in the area are going to be restocking at the end of next month," Jaune answered, "because that's when a major SDC shipment is coming in."

"Did they mention how this shipment is coming in?" Ruby asked.

"They did." Jaune answered as he fished out his notebook, something Ruby had insisted he carry, "It's coming in by freighter."

"So, the docks then." Ruby said, "that would be the location a shipment like that is most vulnerable, too early and they'd have a battle one the high seas, too late and they have to rob all those dust shops over again."

"So what're we going to do then?" Jaune asked.

"We're going to hit them when they try to grab the shipment." Ruby answered, before turning to walk away. "C'mon we still got time, lets work on your swordsmanship."

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"Hhmm, pity." A white haired man said as he examined the feed his robot was sending to him. It showed the impression left in the dirt from where the Wendigo had fallen. "I was hoping to recapture that one. Oh well, nothing to be done now." he turned off the screen, "I guess I'll get back to working on the rest then."

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 **A/N IT! IS! DONE! Well at least until the next chapter. But yeah I finally finished this chapter, it took a bit to work through a few bouts of writers block. So yeah, I'm not gonna talk a whole lot at the end of this one, just letting y'all know I'm still working on it even while I'm also working on my other projects. Hope you enjoy.**


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